Accrediting official to visit SCI

Dr. John A. Taylor, associate director of the North Central Association's Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, will conduct a workshop at 2 p.m. (tentatively), Friday, March 2, in Dawson 103, to inform the SCI community on the importance of assessment. Please mark your calendar and watch for further announcements.

NCA has given SCI until June 1 to report on "direct assessment of general education." On Nov. 30, 1998, an NCA staff analysis said, "It is apparent from the report prepared by the (then-) current chief academic officer that the previously established assessment program at Springfield College in Illinois is not progressing with much success. ... Faculty grading, used as a single evaluative measure of student performance, is not considered to be a strong foundation for an assessment program; the faculty and administration of SCI should reassess their approach to the assessment of student learning as it relates to the overall mission of the College."

Feedback asked on initial newsletter

With this issue, the Assessment Committee launches a newsletter to help SCI faculty and staff find the tools they need to better assess student learning and institutional factors that enhance learning or detract from it. "The feedback we get is that faculty and staff want to know how to do it (assessment) within their respective areas," said Eldon Brown, chair of SCI's assessment committee. We plan to focus on practical advice geared for busy people. Hence the name: Nuts & Bolts. Please let us know how we can serve you, by contacting a member of the Assessment Committee or newsletter editor Pete Ellertsen.

Influential governor touts assessment

Pennsylvania's Gov. Tom Ridge, at a recent conference of the Council on Higher Education Accreditation, joined CHEA officials in calling on colleges and universities to assess educational quality "before the government steps in to do it." His remarks were reported Jan. 24 by The Chronicle of Higher Education and picked up by an electronic bulletin board of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers, which reported, "If colleges don't develop ways to assess educational quality of academic programs, CHEA warned that state and federal government would do it for them." A Jan. 25 Education Daily article on CHEA also picked up by AACRAO said "the accountability movement is spreading from K-12 debates into the realm of higher education, and in so doing, policymakers are realizing that the traditional measure of student achievement, grades, is becoming less relevant because of grade inflation and growth in non-traditional (distance education programs)." A second-term Republican who was widely mentioned for the vice-presidential nomination and President Bush's cabinet, Ridge heads a National Governors Association task force studying college costs, curricula and research. Our thanks to SCI Registrar Helene Bea for spotting the report.

• Parkland College. See what another two-year college in downstate Illinois has been doing -- and when.
• Raymond Walters College, University of Cincinnati. A very helpful site, with information on Primary Trait Analysis, which can turn grading into an approved assessment tool.
• The North Central Association's Five Criteria for Accreditation.

Eldon Brown, chair
Bob Blankenberger
Peter Ellertsen
Susan Full
Alice Gutierrez
Dave Holland
Dave Saner
Robert Buccino (ex officio)
Jeff Mueller (ex officio)

Vol. 1 No. 1