Breaking Down the Barriers to Good Assessment
There are lots of issues I’ve shared before about the challenges of assessment. I’ve blogged about the nature of assessment in trying to address two masters, external accountability, and internal faculty focus on improving student learning. I’ve blogged about the need to provide strong assessment resources and support for faculty in order to build a strong culture of assessment. With this post, I wanted to explore some barriers we need to break through on our campuses. These are barriers that I have encountered both at this campus, and when I have visited with other schools on assessment issues.
- We need to break through the not us – I still hear this barrier articulated when faculty are sure that “other” programs and departments need to assess their students, but we are doing just fine! When we understand assessment is not about faculty or department performance, but rather focuses on improving student learning then we will know that “all of us” need to be involved in assessment.
- We need to break through the let somebody else do it – This especially relates to a tendency in some academic programs of assigning assessment to the new faculty member. The role of assessment is to help programs and departments KNOW how well their curriculum is accomplishing the academic goals of the faculty. If that is the focus of assessment then the work of assessment should be part of everyone’s role, and not just dumped on the new person.
- We need to break the my mind is made up – Unfortunately, I’ve seen some badly designed assessment plans and instruments. There can be many reasons for this, but sometimes it’s because the faculty have already decided what they want to “find” and design the assessment to make sure the results are what the faculty wanted. Good assessment is based on a genuine assessment of student performance to identify areas where faculty can work to improve learning in the curriculum.
- We need to break through the good enough – Assessments that are designed to satisfy the assessment office or to get by the dean or accrediting agency without being truly focused on student learning in the curriculum are a waste of time and resources. We should never be satisfied with good enough.
Barriers are meant to be broken through and broken down. Assessment is about making sure students are learning and breaking down the barriers that prohibit good assessment means focusing on the goal of improving student learning.
Sheri H. Barrett
