Friday, December 17, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education
Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education
I thought this article was interesting and it went along with my assessment of assessment in a tribal college setting. It is the same, but it isn't...if that makes one iota of sense.
As I shared in my presentation, Native Americans and Western European Education really don't mix, and to have an accrediting body like the NCA be the ones to decide whether or not the Tribal Colleges (TCU) are doing assessment properly is interesting. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done, at this point, there needs to be someone making TCU responsible and accountable and as American Indian Educators and students, we want to make sure everyone around us knows that "yes, we are a real college".
This article shared a lot of information, and although it is over 10 years old, it kind of brings one through some of the struggles that TCU had to endure in order to hit the mark and become accredited. I think you' ll find the article interesting to read, only three pages.
I thought this article was interesting and it went along with my assessment of assessment in a tribal college setting. It is the same, but it isn't...if that makes one iota of sense.
As I shared in my presentation, Native Americans and Western European Education really don't mix, and to have an accrediting body like the NCA be the ones to decide whether or not the Tribal Colleges (TCU) are doing assessment properly is interesting. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done, at this point, there needs to be someone making TCU responsible and accountable and as American Indian Educators and students, we want to make sure everyone around us knows that "yes, we are a real college".
This article shared a lot of information, and although it is over 10 years old, it kind of brings one through some of the struggles that TCU had to endure in order to hit the mark and become accredited. I think you' ll find the article interesting to read, only three pages.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Prove It!
Performance-based assessment goes all the way back to Socrates as is used today in many different learning communities. In the article, "Showing What They Know" by Scott Cech, seniors at Barrington High School in Providence, Rhode Island were able to do just as a requirement for earning their diploma. Actually, Rhode Island became the first state in the US to require performance-based portfolios as a means of graduation. Officials for Barrington High like the practical nature of the assessment as it gets them used to completing projects similar to what they will have to do in college. Also, it gets them ready for the workforce since the business world relies on performance evaluations.
Seniors at Barrington must pass two of three possible project formats: a portfolio of work selected from their four years of high school, a senior project, and a comprehensive course assessment. The senior project must be presented to teachers and students in the auditorium where they must also defend their project by fielding questions. Some examples of past projects are creating a sign language course for babies and those who have trouble speaking, creating a snow machine in order to set up a sledding hill for the kids, and a poetry writing course for adults. The projects are not the only items that determine if one can graduate. They must pass a standardized test and maintain a certain grade point average as well.
The senior projects have proven to be a lot of work since there is a string research element and the learning curve is quite since students have never devised such projects before. Faculty make themselves available to mentor students through the process. They have even had to negotiate with their teacher's union since more time is spent with students. Also, a culture change must take place since more time is spent with project and less with the traditional course material. For instance, a history teacher will most likely get as far as they have in the past for an American History course.
A rubric is used for grading purposes and students are asked to refer back to it often . Even with the rubric, there are those that still argue that performance-based grading is subjective. My argument for this process is that assessment in the workforce is very similar to this and there is some subjectivity. But the standards are shared with the employee so they can work towards their goals. Outside of being a very arduous task, performance-based assessment is a great way to measure student learning.
Seniors at Barrington must pass two of three possible project formats: a portfolio of work selected from their four years of high school, a senior project, and a comprehensive course assessment. The senior project must be presented to teachers and students in the auditorium where they must also defend their project by fielding questions. Some examples of past projects are creating a sign language course for babies and those who have trouble speaking, creating a snow machine in order to set up a sledding hill for the kids, and a poetry writing course for adults. The projects are not the only items that determine if one can graduate. They must pass a standardized test and maintain a certain grade point average as well.
The senior projects have proven to be a lot of work since there is a string research element and the learning curve is quite since students have never devised such projects before. Faculty make themselves available to mentor students through the process. They have even had to negotiate with their teacher's union since more time is spent with students. Also, a culture change must take place since more time is spent with project and less with the traditional course material. For instance, a history teacher will most likely get as far as they have in the past for an American History course.
A rubric is used for grading purposes and students are asked to refer back to it often . Even with the rubric, there are those that still argue that performance-based grading is subjective. My argument for this process is that assessment in the workforce is very similar to this and there is some subjectivity. But the standards are shared with the employee so they can work towards their goals. Outside of being a very arduous task, performance-based assessment is a great way to measure student learning.
Capstone Courses to Assess Learning
"Doing Less Work, Collecting Better Data: Using Capstone Courses to Assess Learning"
by Catherine White Berhelde
http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp07/pr-sp07_research.cfm
As stated in article, "Assessment, therfore, is not an end in and of itself, but rather a means to an end. The end is the improvement of student learning at the individual, program, and institutional levels. Analyzing capstone projects is an efficient and effective approach to achieving that end"
This is a great piece that takes a look at using capstones to assess undergraduate education. Capstone projects assess how successfully the major has attained the overall goals, by doing so they provide invaluable information to faculty about the quality of instruction and of programs.
It was found that nearly half of the the regionally accredited colleges and universities use capstones as part of their institutions assessment program. Departments use capstone products to assess their majors in a variety of ways from public presentations to using five Likert scale items to assess how well capstone papers demonstrate achievemnet of the department's learning goals.
Case studies and examples of how capstone products are aseessed is also presented in this reseaerch article. It concludes with a final step of using data collected about student performance to improve the major. capstone-based assessments have led to addition of new courses, changes in curriculum as well as pedagogy or course format.
conclusion, departments that have used capstones to assess their majors have found that it leads to improved student learning.
by Catherine White Berhelde
http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp07/pr-sp07_research.cfm
As stated in article, "Assessment, therfore, is not an end in and of itself, but rather a means to an end. The end is the improvement of student learning at the individual, program, and institutional levels. Analyzing capstone projects is an efficient and effective approach to achieving that end"
This is a great piece that takes a look at using capstones to assess undergraduate education. Capstone projects assess how successfully the major has attained the overall goals, by doing so they provide invaluable information to faculty about the quality of instruction and of programs.
It was found that nearly half of the the regionally accredited colleges and universities use capstones as part of their institutions assessment program. Departments use capstone products to assess their majors in a variety of ways from public presentations to using five Likert scale items to assess how well capstone papers demonstrate achievemnet of the department's learning goals.
Case studies and examples of how capstone products are aseessed is also presented in this reseaerch article. It concludes with a final step of using data collected about student performance to improve the major. capstone-based assessments have led to addition of new courses, changes in curriculum as well as pedagogy or course format.
conclusion, departments that have used capstones to assess their majors have found that it leads to improved student learning.
Using Data for Improvement or Not?
The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 15, 2009
"Many Colleges Assess learning But May Not Use data to Improve Survey Says"
This is a very short article, but the jist of it indicates that although colleges are collecting data on learning they are not using the data for improvement of programs, courses or student learning.
Stanely O. Ikenberry, stressesd to higher ed leaders that colleges are doing more to assess student learning, but campuses are are not doing enough to use the data they collect to improve teaching and learning. He says that campuses and state officials should do more to stress the broader social purpose of assessing learning, and do more to focus attention on how the data can be used to make improvements.
The most common response to how institutions use information about how well learning objectives are met was to fulfill accrediatation requirements.
Ikenberry found that the most common tool used to assess learning outcomes is a survey of alumni, employers, students, or some combination of those groups, less than half of the respondents used some form of standardized testing. In the survey, campus officials reported significant restistance from faculty members to measure student learning.
There is a common thread in all of the blogs I am reporting. . .resistance and not using data for improvement of learning and teaching.
"Many Colleges Assess learning But May Not Use data to Improve Survey Says"
This is a very short article, but the jist of it indicates that although colleges are collecting data on learning they are not using the data for improvement of programs, courses or student learning.
Stanely O. Ikenberry, stressesd to higher ed leaders that colleges are doing more to assess student learning, but campuses are are not doing enough to use the data they collect to improve teaching and learning. He says that campuses and state officials should do more to stress the broader social purpose of assessing learning, and do more to focus attention on how the data can be used to make improvements.
The most common response to how institutions use information about how well learning objectives are met was to fulfill accrediatation requirements.
Ikenberry found that the most common tool used to assess learning outcomes is a survey of alumni, employers, students, or some combination of those groups, less than half of the respondents used some form of standardized testing. In the survey, campus officials reported significant restistance from faculty members to measure student learning.
There is a common thread in all of the blogs I am reporting. . .resistance and not using data for improvement of learning and teaching.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Assessment in Higher Education
Education Up Close - March 2003,
http://www.glencoe.com/ps/teaching today/educationupclose.phtml
Assessment allows faculty to determine what, and how well students are learning. Assessment also allows faculty to fine tune teaching methods. Finally assessment allows department or divisions heasds to evaluate the effectiveness of entire programs. This article explains the tiered approach at Urbana University:
1) assessment of department or entire program - a rubric is created that assesses the goals of the program. Assessing the course and assessing the whole program allows both individual faculty members and department or division chairs to refine and design course materials that allow for the maximum learning for all students.
2) assessment of the class and individual students is ongoing and provides a continuous monitoring of student learning. Assessmnet of individual students must be an ongoing process throughout the semester and assessment must be able to measure higher level skills.
Most courses lend themselves to a variety of assessment strategies for example oral measures such as speeches, written measures such as writing reports, journalling, participation, as in cooperative or collaborative groups could all be strategies with in a speech course.
as noted in the article regardless of the assessmnet strategy, all assessmnet must focus on improving student learning with a secondary focus on improving teaching methods. Assessment strategies - whether of the individual, the course, or the entire program - give faculty an impressive tool to measure learning. With assessment, educators can find those students who need an extra hand, fine tune their own teaching methods, or redesign whole programs.
http://www.glencoe.com/ps/teaching today/educationupclose.phtml
Assessment allows faculty to determine what, and how well students are learning. Assessment also allows faculty to fine tune teaching methods. Finally assessment allows department or divisions heasds to evaluate the effectiveness of entire programs. This article explains the tiered approach at Urbana University:
1) assessment of department or entire program - a rubric is created that assesses the goals of the program. Assessing the course and assessing the whole program allows both individual faculty members and department or division chairs to refine and design course materials that allow for the maximum learning for all students.
2) assessment of the class and individual students is ongoing and provides a continuous monitoring of student learning. Assessmnet of individual students must be an ongoing process throughout the semester and assessment must be able to measure higher level skills.
Most courses lend themselves to a variety of assessment strategies for example oral measures such as speeches, written measures such as writing reports, journalling, participation, as in cooperative or collaborative groups could all be strategies with in a speech course.
as noted in the article regardless of the assessmnet strategy, all assessmnet must focus on improving student learning with a secondary focus on improving teaching methods. Assessment strategies - whether of the individual, the course, or the entire program - give faculty an impressive tool to measure learning. With assessment, educators can find those students who need an extra hand, fine tune their own teaching methods, or redesign whole programs.
Assessment Acountability vs. Assessmnet for Improvement
Can Assessment for Accountability Complement Assessment for Improvement?
http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp07/pr-sp07_analysis2.cfm
In this article those in the assessment community are asking each other, “Can assessment for accountability and assessment for improvement coexist? . . . .” The question is in part due to the circumstances of what is occurring in grades K-12. In some K-12 schools the curriculum has been narrowed to focus on the English and math to be tested, so less time is spent in science and social studies, and physical ed., art and music are no longer offered. In other words assessment is occurring for the mandated accountability measures so students are being taught what is tested and ignoring assessment measures to improve learning and teaching.
The article clearly articulates ways and means of instruction delivery, student engagement and purposeful meaningful assessments that enhance student learning and that create engaging classes. The curriculum at any level should not need to be narrowed to satisfy the accountability demands. As suggested in the examples, instructors must work together with stakeholders to make assessment for improvement and assessment for accountability complement, even strengthen one another.
http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp07/pr-sp07_analysis2.cfm
In this article those in the assessment community are asking each other, “Can assessment for accountability and assessment for improvement coexist? . . . .” The question is in part due to the circumstances of what is occurring in grades K-12. In some K-12 schools the curriculum has been narrowed to focus on the English and math to be tested, so less time is spent in science and social studies, and physical ed., art and music are no longer offered. In other words assessment is occurring for the mandated accountability measures so students are being taught what is tested and ignoring assessment measures to improve learning and teaching.
The article clearly articulates ways and means of instruction delivery, student engagement and purposeful meaningful assessments that enhance student learning and that create engaging classes. The curriculum at any level should not need to be narrowed to satisfy the accountability demands. As suggested in the examples, instructors must work together with stakeholders to make assessment for improvement and assessment for accountability complement, even strengthen one another.
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