Making an Art Form of Assessment at Alverno College - The Gold Standard?

Making an Art Form of Assessment at Alverno College – The Gold Standard?

Time and time again, I utter those words that have crossed most students’ lips, “Why can’t I just learn for the sake of learning?” Usually this half-complaint, half-whine comes when I am knee high in homework or preparing for the fourth exam of the week. Needless to say, this selfish utterance is a plea for sanity and a moment of solitude amidst the rigors of my educational career. However, despite the status of my personal school work load, there are many students, like myself, who want to know… What is the point of grades and why do I have to earn an A to prove I have learned something well or mastered a particular objective? Or my personal favorite, “If I could go to school just to become more intelligent, well-rounded, and because I enjoy learning, I would stay in school forever (which I must add, NDSU would love as tuition dollars would keep flowing); However, the grades, homework, and stress wears me out and sucks the joy out of staying in school.” Thus, instead of enjoying and relishing in the new abundance of intelligence I am incorporating into my intellectual repertoire, I am instead counting down the days until I no longer have to write papers, pass exams, or earn that A to prove I mastered the content… the days when my course load is complete.

I would like to think that I am not the only person who has such a quandary with the educational system and the systematic ways we rank and rate student performance with letter grades; thus, given this blogging assignment, I set out on The Chronicle of Higher Education to find some other people, or institutions, that too scoff at letter grading and have proposed or implemented new means of assessing student learning and showing true student mastery in a content area.

As I searched, I grew tired of the banter about systematic standardized tests or grade inflation – after all, if there are no grades, grade inflation would be impossible – but then I found it, the article that drew me in. It was entitled, “Making an Art Form of Assessment,” and was written by Burton Bollag in October 2006. The article discussed the learning assessment means implemented at Alverno College, a small Catholic women’s college in Wisconsin. As I read, I found myself getting more intrigued about student learning assessment and what this small college was doing to ensure their students were learning and preparing for their post-degree lives. Then, in the fifth paragraph, I found the golden words, “… In fact, Alverno scrapped grades decades ago.” Wait a minute, hold the phone, no grades? Is this a real education system? And if so, can I work there?

As I read on, I learned that Alverno College frowns upon the traditional letter grading system and instead favors an experiential “real life” situation model to assess student comprehension. This situation model implemented at Alverno gives all students, in every course they take, an opportunity to apply what they have learned and show first-hand how well they have mastered and/or can use the course content in their daily lives.

For instance, the article explains that a psychology student at Alverno may take a small child out to lunch and then analyze his/her behavior based on the course content and theories taught in class. Thus, instead of simply regurgitating definitions or memorizing theories to jot down mindlessly on a paper and pencil test, as favored by most institutions, the students at Alverno actually have to consider how they will apply their course content and then demonstrate successful mastery of the new found knowledge. The students are then critiqued and given immediate feedback from their professors, peers, and countless volunteer evaluators from the community, most retired professionals or Alverno alum, and then encouraged to implement and consider the feedback and make continual improvements in their execution and application of the course material.

When students are participating in their experiential assessment activities, they are being critiqued and evaluated on eight abilities that the school and its faculty feel that all students must master before graduating; the abilities are: …”communication, analysis, problem solving, valuing in decision making, social interaction, developing a global perspective, effective citizenship, and finally aesthetic engagement.” Students at Alverno are evaluated in every course they take based on their mastery and demonstration of the eight abilities and their comprehension of the information or knowledge needed from the course to complete the assessment that coincides with the course content. The students then are considered either satisfactorily completing a course or not, it is that simple.

The article explains that this ongoing student learning assessment is not optional at Alverno College, it is in fact implemented and utilized in every course taught and everyone, students and faculty alike, are committed to this on-going, ever present assessment program. As stated by George Kuh, director of the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University at Bloomington, “Alverno has threaded a culture of assessment through its programs, creating a powerful educational approach.”

However, as with any assessment program, this is not a one-size fits all model. What may work at Alverno College may not be well-suited for a school the size of NDSU; thus, many colleges look to Alverno College as a trend-setter, gold standard for assessment, and model program, but then try and devise a feasible assessment program that can be incorporated into their culture and campus life.

Who would have thought that a small Catholic women’s college in Wisconsin would be the trend-setter in student learning assessment? The program at Alverno College is amazing to me and in my personal opinion not only evaluates student learning and mastery, but also prepares these young women for their post-collegiate career. It is one thing to get out of college and be book smart, it is another to graduate college and be book smart, as well as having a working understanding of how to apply said intelligence in an everyday, working environment.

After reading through this article on Alverno College’s assessment program, I find myself far more intrigued and interested in the different types of assessment which could be used to evaluate student learning. I guess it all comes down… How far outside the box is an institution willing to think in order to assess what students know? And, how will an institution make sure faculty find value in this new alternative assessment program not containing the A-F grading scale?

Bollag, B. (2006, October 6). Making an art form of assessment. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 53. Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/article/Making-an-Art-Form-of-Asses/17645/