|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wednesday: Prizes, free food, No. 2 pencils
Wednesday is Assessment Day at SCI. It's the second one since we resumed standardized testing last year after a hiatus as the assessment program was reevaluated, and in some ways it's even more important that we have a good showing this year.
Please announce to your classes and remind your work-study students: At 11 a.m. Wednesday, sophomores eligible for graduation will report to Dawson 230 to take the CAAP reading test, and all students will be given questionnaires to provide us with information important to our stakeholders. Another testing session, also in Dawson 230, is scheduled at 5:30 p.m.
We'll be collecting information for three sets of stakeholders. The CAAP test results, as a benchmark measure of student learning outcomes, will be an important part of the data evaluated by the North Central Association as a condition of our continued accreditation. In addition, students will be given a questionnaire from a statewide chemical dependency education center on drug and alcohol use and a survey developed by Benedictine University evaluating interest in a variety of B.A.-level programs that might be offered on the Springfield campus. Well, really, it's four stakeholders.
In each case, our primary stakeholder is SCI -- in other words, our own faculty, staff and students.
"Assessment Day is an important part of SCI's overall assessment effort," says Dean of the College Jeff Mueller. "Scores on the CAAP test will indicate how well our students compare with the norms for other students at two-year colleges nationwide. The drug and alcohol survey will help us serve our students better, and it is crucial that the baccalaureate programs succeed in attracting students."
According to Student Affairs Dean Kevin Broeckling, the drug-alcohol survey results will be used by the Illinois Higher Education Center, which studies alcohol and drug use trends statewide, for prevention and education activities planning. More importantly, it will give us information that will be helpful as we design our own programs and policies.
"The results are tabulated in a statewide database to access normative data, and I will receive a data set for the results from SCI as well," Broeckling said. "The Student Activities Council and I will use the results received from this survey to plan prevention and education activities at SCI."
Preparations are well under way for Wednesday's activities. No. 2 pencils have been sharpened, classrooms lined up, gift certificates purchased and barbecue lined up for a free food day in Gingko Square right after the test hour. A drawing will be held for the gift certificates, and free food -- as always -- will be dished out for all.
Prizes and free food are an integral part of assessment, as far as we're concerned, because we need a high rate of participation, and those of us on the Assessment Committee want the process to be collegial and voluntary -- without the "high stakes" coercion that sometimes hampers acceptance of outcomes assessment elsewhere. Last year's response was very encouraging. More students showed up to take the CAAP test, in fact, than we had planned for. We factored llast year's response into our planning for this year, and we hope it will be even better this year.
-- Pete Ellertsen, editor, Nuts & Bolts
Nuts & Bolts is an electronic newsletter published by the Assessment Committee of Springfield College in Illinois. Members are: Moses Allen, Bob Blankenberger, Alice Gutierrez, Scott McCullar, Dave Saner, Steve Stowers, Barb Tanzyus and Pete Ellertsen; Kevin Broeckling, dean of students, and Jeff Mueller, dean of the college, serve ex officio.
If you have information, comments or feedback, please contact any committee member or Nuts & Bolts editor Pete Ellertsen, in Becker L-16A on the SCI campus, 525-1420 ext. 519 or by e-mail at <ellertsen@sci.edu>.
