Building Commitment to Assessment: the Value Proposition Roberta C. Teahen, Ph.D. Associate Provost Ferris State University, MI.

Building Commitment to Assessment: the Value Proposition

Roberta C. Teahen, Ph.D.

Associate Provost

Ferris State University, MI

Session Overview

• Audience ideas on building commitment• Thinking about organizational change• The Value Proposition• Principles to guide assessment engagement

Your experiences?

In your experience, what most contributes to success in broadening engagement

with and commitment to assessment of student learning?

What do we know about organizational change? (Audience)

What is your experience with effecting change in your organization?. . . .

Descriptors?

Research Says About Change

Edgar Schein, Harvard Ph.D. in social psychology: “Adapting poorly or failing to meet our creative potential

often looks more desirable than risking failure and loss of self-esteem in the learning process. Learning anxiety is the fundamental restraining force which can go up in direct proportion to the amount of disconfirmation, leading to the maintenance of the equilibrium by defensive avoidance of the disconfirming information. It is the dealing with learning anxiety, then, that is the key to producing change, and Lewin understood this better than anyone.” (p. 3, Schein, 1995).

Fundamental to Building Commitment to Assessment

Is Creating value. • Assessment must be valued• Assessment must be valuable

Value Proposition Concept

• In Business: What one can expect to gain as a result of acquiring a product or service.

• In Academe: What’s in it for me? (WIIFM)

What would make assessment valuable in your organization?

What Value Proposition Questions Should be Asked?

• How will this benefit my students?• How will this improve our college or

university?• How will my efforts be recognized

(promotion, tenure, merit, etc.)?• Fundamentally: Why should I do this?

Strategies for Building

Commitment

(a 12-step program)

1 – Create a Value Proposition

• Reach consensus on shared interests• Identify what is important• Facilitate strategic conversations• Begin with the end in mind• Determine benefits• Acknowledge that there are multiple means to

achieve the end goals (and assessment data will demonstrate the results)

Bay College (MI)

• Faculty collectively describe desired general education outcomes. . .

One Possible Proposition

Assessment for Learning

2 – Build Upon Strengths

• Something is being done right! (find it)• Utilize appreciative inquiry• Build on areas of strength• Value what is being done

Appreciative Inquiry

. . . is the cooperative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves systematic discovery of what gives a system ‘life’ when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and human terms.

AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that

strengthen a system’s capacity to heighten positive potential. It mobilizes inquiry through crafting an “unconditional positive question’ often involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people.” (Cooperrider & Whitney).

Covey Principles Apply Here

• Seek first to understand, and then to be understood. . . .–And begin with the end in mind–First things first

3 – Create a Safe Environment

• Be clear that assessment is not related to faculty evaluation

• Be sensitive to individuals’ fears of being “found out” (that they do not know how to write outcomes, that they cannot think of an authentic assessment, that there is something they could be doing better)

• Articulate the purpose(s) of assessment: Improving student learning

• Engender trust by your ongoing actions (and support)

Creating Safe Places (cont.)

• Work with faculty one-on-one to avoid defensive responses in group settings

• Respect people and their opinions• Utilize mentors, coaches, peers, and more• The “It’s a Miracle Phenomena” . . .(FSU)

Sauk Valley College (IL)

• Assessment Coaches and core team provided department-level assistance

4 – Recognize Quality Assessment

• Celebrate achievements• Provide models• Produce testimonials• Provide recognition . . .

–Newsletters, Website, awards ceremonies• Link to merit and promotion processes (not

the student achievement but the implementation of quality assessment)

Ferris Survey Findings

Of the 265 faculty who responded to a Fall 2008 survey, 62% either agreed or strongly agreed that “improving my efforts in assessment of student learning outcomes in the classroom should be recognized in our college’s tenure and promotion policy(ies) and procedures. http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/administration/academicaffairs/assessment/committees.htm

5 - Capitalize on Natural Curiosity

• Support inquiry (learning communities, brown-bag conversations, initiatives)

• Encourage experimentation . . .designing different strategies and comparing the results

• Craft small research projects, such as the Inquiries into Teaching/Learning Project at Ferris: http://www.ferris.edu/fctl/inquiries/

6 - Appeal to Shared Interests

• No one I know comes to work each day planning to do a bad job!

• Faculty generally care deeply about helping their students succeed

• Some are eliminating the ‘A’ word. . .“It’s about improving student learning.”

• Despite disciplines, we generally share the same hopes for our learners

7 – Empower and Support Others

• Establish that “Assessment is everyone’s responsibility”

• Provide assistance through faculty development efforts

• Assure that leaders understand assessment and are able to assist others (frequently the confusion about assessment stems from the lack of knowledge of the leaders)

• Engage colleagues in meaningful conversations

Support Comes from Peers Too At Grand Rapids Community College, Art/Design

faculty collaborated to achieve accreditation and consequently moved toward more sophisticated authentic assessments.

8 – Focus on the Vital Few (vs. the trivial many)

• You cannot do everything all the time!• Set priorities, such as focusing on critical thinking

in one year and writing in the next. . . Across the disciplines (One option: Primary trait analysis)

• Do not administer major instruments every year (such as CAAP, NSSE, etc.)

• Work with select audiences, such as all the College of Arts/Sciences seniors in one year and the College of Business seniors in the next

9 – Start with Likely Successes

• Start with the nurses!• Then look for those with specialized

accreditation• Use these groups to tell their stories• Work first with data that is further from the

classroom, such as NSSE/CCSSE data• Discover the leaders, not the laggards• Convene “artifact review” sessions

Balance Customization and Standardization

• Standardized tests are rarely tightly aligned with intended learning outcomes, yet they may provide valuable benchmark data . . .if utilized carefully

• Customize your strategies to fit your outcomes and your culture

• Recognize that building comprehensive assessments (cross-college/university) from the ground up may be too time-intensive and not sufficiently reliable or valid

11 – Work Within Resource Constraints

• Investments should not exceed their value to you

• Look for returns on your investments• Scale according to your capacity – finances,

people, needs

12 - Make Manageable Requests

• Decide how data will be used before you ask for it• Do not overwhelm people with redundant data

requests and/or complex forms• Build a timeline that respects people’s ability to

produce results• Keep it simple – make complying with

information requests easy to do and a part of ongoing operations

Assessment for Learning

One stream of literature talks of assessment FOR learning, rather than assessment OF learning. . . For some, a more enticing idea.

Grant Wiggins writes

When they assess for learning, teachers use the classroom assessment process and the continuous flow of information about student achievement that it provides in order to advance, not merely check on, student learning. They do this by:

*understanding and articulating in advance of teaching the achievement targets that their students are to hit;

* informing their students about those learning goals, in terms that students understand, from the very beginning of the teaching and learning process;

* becoming assessment literate and thus able to transform their expectations into assessment exercises and scoring procedures that accurately reflect student achievement;

* using classroom assessments to build students' confidence in themselves as learners and help them take responsibility for their own learning, so as to lay a foundation for lifelong learning;

* translating classroom assessment results into frequent descriptive feedback (versus judgmental feedback) for students, providing them with specific insights as to how to improve;

* continuously adjusting instruction based on the results of classroom assessments;

* engaging students in regular self-assessment, with standards held constant so that students can watch themselves grow over time and thus feel in charge of their own success; and

* actively involving students in communicating with their teacher and their families about their achievement status and improvement.

• Wiggins, 2002

An Assessment Value Proposition

Everybody is learning -- students, staff, organizations

References

• Schein, E. (1995). Kurt Lewin’s Change Theory in the Field and In the Classroom: Notes Toward a Model of Managed Learning.

• Wiggins, G. (2002). Kappan Professional Journal.

http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/k0206sti.htm

• YouTube sites– Western Washington http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=BZ3USs16J3Y– Steve Ehrmann http://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=AAUrnAAv0CE&feature=related

Contact Information

• [email protected]• Telephone: 231-591-3805• http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/

administration/academicaffairs/assessment/