Tips for Writing SACSCOC Non-Academic Program Assessment Reports

Tips for Writing SACSCOC Non-Academic Program Assessment Reports

Office of Planning, Institutional Research, and Assessment (PIRA)

Fall 2014

•Ideally you already evaluate your unit’s effectiveness

•Program Assessment Reports should describe these activities using SACSCOC guidelines and terminology

•Data or other findings that measure operational and/or student learning outcomes should be included, as should interpretation of findings

•Initiatives to improve should be included

•But don’t create special data collection process for SACSCOC; just summarize existing processes

•Save yourself time and unnecessary work by adapting your existing annual report to the SACSCOC Program Assessment Report template

1) Administrative support services2) Academic and student support services3) Research4) Community/public service

may prefer to submit a Program Assessment Report (PAR) for each office within the division, particularly if outcomes are not the same across those offices.

• defined desired mission, program outcomes or objectives, and related measures,

• collected and evaluated results from ongoing assessment (multiple years),

• undertaken actions to continuously improve outcomes.

Help reviewers find key components quickly & easily

Implement Change

(Improve)

Collect Findings

Define Outcomes & Measures

Evaluate Results

• mission and program outcomes (objectives)• operational and/or student learning outcomes (2+) and

related measures (2+ each, 1 should be direct measure)• assessment findings: results of measures from multiple

years (if feasible)• discussion of results: review of findings, including whether

performance meets expectations• discussion of changes: initiatives to improve program

and whether continuous improvement has occurred• clear narrative and organization to make compliance

obvious (does everything make sense?)

• tie it to UM Mission:“The University of Miami’s mission is toeducate and nurture students, to createknowledge, and to provide service to ourcommunity and beyond. Committed to excellence and proud of the diversity of our University family, we strive to develop future leaders

of our nation and the world.” and your strategic plan

• describe program outcomes/objectives (e.g., purpose of unit, type of support for students—including any research or service components)

• describe reasonable expectations in measurable terms (efficiency, accuracy, effectiveness, comprehensiveness, etc.)• include at least 2 outcomes • make outcomes easy to identify (e.g., use bolding & numbering) and clearly stated (follow expected structure)

• Focus on a current service or process• Be under the control of or responsibility of the unit• Be measurable• Lend itself to improvements• Be singular, not “bundled”• Be meaningful and not trivial• Not lead to “yes/no” answer

Source: Mary Harrington, Univ of Mississippi

• Efficiency: The Registrar’s Office processes transcript requests in a timely manner.

• Accuracy: Purchasing accurately processes purchase orders.

• Effectiveness: Human Resources provides effective new employee orientation services.

• Comprehensiveness: Financial Aid provides comprehensive customer service.

Source: Mary Harrington, Univ of Mississippi

• Start with words like Students… Graduates… We want students to…

• Include verbs or phrases like will demonstrate… should have ability to …

• Include words like …mastery of… …a capacity for…

• Describe expected competence (e.g., practical skills, communication, leadership, multi-cultural awareness)

• Library: Students will have basic information literacy skills.

• Career Services: Students will be able to create an effective resume.

• Information Technology: Staff will know to use the student information system.

• Human Resources: New employees will be familiar with the benefit package.

Source: Mary Harrington, Univ of Mississippi

• Research: number of grants, total funding, number of peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations

• Administrative support: timeliness in processing orders, budget growth (or savings), complaint tracking/resolution, public safety improvements, audits

• Academic/student support: number of students counseled, job placements, scholarship awards, seminar participation, leadership training participation

• Community/public service: number of patients seen, community event participation, annual volunteer commitments

• Often non-academic units use survey data for their assessment

• Surveys are indirect measures of student learning, but they are direct measures of customer (client, employee, patient, student) experience

Source: Mary Harrington, Univ of Mississippi

• ensure each measure has corresponding findings (and no findings without earlier measure)

• insert corresponding outcome/measure as heading for each set of results

• ensure multiple years or insert explanation that data not provided for new program/revised measures:

“As part of the major three-year continuous improvement update of our program assessment report in FY 2013, we decided to start using customer satisfaction surveys in conjunction with service requests. Because this is a new measure, we have data for only FY 2014, but we will continue to update the data in upcoming years to monitor continuous improvement.”

• if measure is a narrative rather than data, ensure summary plus sample evaluations or insert statement

• ensure results are presented clearly (tables) • decide if appendix of findings, survey instrument, etc. will be

necessary (usually not)

Common error: Programs simply state they evaluate outcomes or omit measure(s).

Solution: You should provide evidence of assessment activity (table/text summary of findings).

• statement as to why these particular assessment instruments were used

• analysis of the assessment findings• How are periodic reviews used for improvements?• How does the use of assessment results improve your

services?• What changes have been implemented or will be developed to

improve your operational and/or student learning outcomes?• evidence of improvement

• general trends• specifically in response to improvement initiatives

• When describing initiatives to improve outcomes: The report simply lists initiatives.

• Solution: Include brief commentary on which outcome will benefit.

• When describing continuous improvement: The report does not include any evidence of improvement over time.

• Solution: At least discuss efforts to improve outcomes.

• Add bold, indents, and/or underlines to assist reviewers • Nest measures under related outcomes • Label/nest Outcomes/Measures in Findings section• Include discussion of improvements/changes in Discussion

section, not in Outcomes or Findings sections • Remove yellow template instructions• Delete extraneous text and data (clarity more important

than length)• Expand acronyms (e.g., RSMAS, PRISM, UMHC)• Spell check; fix typos

• Study resources and template before starting• Use existing assessments, available documentation,

and your current reports whenever possible (saves time and effort)

• Consider starting with measures and then writing outcomes to go with them instead of the other traditional order

Contact:Dr. David E. WilesExecutive Director, Assessment and AccreditationInstitutional Accreditation Liaison (305) 284-3276