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Principles for more deliberate assessment.

Article Excerpt
Abstract

In an era in which the federal government is going to spend an unprecedented 53.1 billion dollars on public education, the level of accountability and pressure has increased for both students and teachers (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). The College of Education at North Carolina State University is developing a more deliberate process by which program assessment will be undertaken and reported annually. The process is supported by the use of specific technologies to assist in the design, collection, management, and reporting of assessment data. This paper reports on how design principles and technology tools were employed to support emerging progress for continuous program improvement.

Introduction

North Carolina State University's College of Education is dedicated to continuous program improvement and has developed a more deliberate process by which program assessment will be designed, implemented, and evaluated. The process is supported by the University's assessment-based Undergraduate Program Review (UAPR). The reporting procedure will be supported by the use of specific technology for the collection, storage, and reporting of assessment practices, findings, and program changes occurring as a result of the findings. The assessment process was initially implemented using the nine undergraduate academic programs in teacher education in the fall of 2002 and were extended to graduate programs in the fall of 2003. The purpose of this paper is to document that deliberate process and how it relates to two specific questions: (1) How can a more deliberate process of program assessment design and implementation be initiated? (2) How can the use of specific technology impact the manner in which assessment is conducted in a college of education?

Undergraduate Assessment-Based Program Review

University Context North Carolina State University (NCSU) is a research-extensive land-grant university located in Raleigh, North Carolina. The university has a present day population of over 29,000 students and over 1,600 faculty members. It is home to 10 colleges and offers bachelor's degrees in 92 fields, masters degrees in 101 fields, and doctoral degrees in 58 fields (NCSU, 2003). All undergraduate programs at NCSU participate in the UAPR process. The UAPR process includes submission of an assessment plan and portfolio for each program. The process allows each program to determine objectives, outcomes, and measures appropriate for that program and promotes program improvement by asking a series of questions: (1) What are we trying to do and why are we doing it? (2) What do we expect the student to know or do as a result of our program? (3) How well are we doing it? (4) What evidence do we have to support our findings? (5) How do we use the information to improve? (6) Do the improvements we make work? Four specific outcomes for programs are a...