Kelly in Kansas

Monday has arrived again and we're already halfway through the semester. I've revised our department's report for both of our national accreditation agencies but still managed to stay ahead on the rest of my responsibilities and I think I'm still a bit in shock given that each of those reports by itself is enough to derail a semester or even an academic year. Now, if there were only a way to make clear to students all the tasks we professors undertake outside the classroom to make their educations possible. 

Our department is in transition from the "old guard" to the "new guard" and the evolutions in policy that better serve the students we have now that come with this transitions. In some cases, the "old guard" preferred personal guidance to policy guidance but, as the times change, it's become more clear that we need more policy given that it can be more consistently applied to every student in a particular program. 


The program I'm responsible for "administering" or "overseeing" is much more definitely guided by state and federal mandates, even though either can change at any time. It's an interesting contrast to other programs in the department that are either much more "wide open" or answer to another entity on campus that may or may not have clearly delineated policies. No matter what the parameters are that were are given as professors who do much more than teach every day, we do our best to keep students at the forefront of what we are doing given that, in these days of economic challenge, they literally are not only our bread but also our butter. Now, to help students better understand how much we do for them each and every day.

Labels: accreditation, assessment, new guard, old guard, programs, state programs, students, transition

More from me later on this important topic.

As I just said, OA done well can be as simple as sitting down and thinking about what you are doing, what you want to be doing, articulating those things, assessing for the evidence of those things, documenting how your expectations fit what the students are doing, then going back and tweaking your teaching and/or your expectations the next time around, documenting that, and so on. It's about documenting process and goals. Having said that, there are people who want to use 'bad numbers' to beat us over the head. Those are the people we need to fight, not the idea. Self-reflection is not a bad thing, whether on a personal, departmental, or institutional level.

 Here's the rest of ADM's post.

Labels: assessment, blogenspiel

The debate continues - how to effective implement assessment of student learning. This Chronicle of Higher Ed news item explains explains another "new call" for assessment at the college and university levels. Although outgoing Secretary of Education Spellings (and, apparently maybe sooner rather than later) tried to issue this call, there was enough "movement" from the usual crowds to go around it - at least for now.

Ultimately, the accountability measurements (data, data, data) that was first utilized in the business world will be inside our house and not just on our doorsteps. As I asked our dean earlier this semester, "So, isn't all the data and analysis that is downstairs (we're in the main administration building) in the institutional research office something we can no longer ignore and something we will have to start dealing with more effectively?"

I think it surprised my dean that I was this aware. On the other hand, I'm not sure how many of my colleagues understood what I really meant. More than one has spent a career fighting _against_ anything from outside the department (and sometimes within :-) ).

If you follow the comments on the first Chronicle article above, you'll see the usual back and forth between administrator view and faculty view. The reality is somewhere in the middle. And, as I've believed for over a decade, if we as faculty do not get a handle on this, we will be told what handle to hang on to as we go along for the ride to meet the demands of more accountability to the outside world. Sadly, some of our colleagues at institutions with the resources to actually accomplish this, continue in large part to ignore it given their major emphasis on discipline research and not on the larger world of our responsibility to taxpayers, parents, and students. And, some of what happens in the world of teacher education is workable but not necessarily all of it.

Of course, more thoughts are brewing but it's time to get some grading done.

Labels: administrators, assessment, faculty, politics, student learning

Didn't realize I hadn't posted all week. It's been busy both on the home front and with work.

Will and I did an assessment workshop with area teachers on Wednesday and it was a great learning experience and the evals were excellent overall. (I always strive for perfection.). I'm still practicing my "i can't control every aspect of the world around me" approach and it seems to be working - especially in decreasing my stress level overall.

Yestereday was doctor's appointments - they alway seem to consume hours and hours and so I have finally learned not to expect to get much else done.

I was back in the saddle visiting student teachers on Monday - it was great getting back out into actual high school classrooms.

I have more meeting today than I would like but it is Friday after all . . . so there is an end in sight.

Yesterday I did get rolling on TAH grants.

I also took my little Shadow man to the doctor and the poor little guy is deteriorating faster than we thought - we're probably looking at weeks to months instead of months to years. I mainly want to be sure he isn't hurting or in pain in anyway. Since he's also starting to mentally detach, I'm missing part of him already. He does recognize me but doesn't hear out of one ear and only partially in another but still sees some movement. He does get upset when I go and seems happy to see me when I return but the major change is that he used to stay right with me whenever he was beting petted and now he's more likely to leave me. I do have to pick him up more - no more jumping up and down and it's better than he not hop on the steps. The vet did give him a shot and he seems to feel better - I think he was so sore from falling off the bed a couple of nights before (part of what precipated the office visit).

When I lost Sadie Bess ten days after moving into the house I built because there was nowhere suitable to rent in this small town that allowed pets, I swore I would never be without a dog and would always get a new one before I lost the old one. However, Shadow has always been a one dog household - he tolerates other critters but has always been more people-centered. And my research indicated there was the possibility that he would give up sooner if he knew he was replaced. And, on a more selfish note, it's all I can do to handle his extra needs right now without adding a younger (probably rescue again) animal to the house. In fact, I will probably take a break and travel more and the next animal will member of the family will be acclimated to doggy day care options that are for groups and not individual dogs so it's easier on both of us for me to fulfill work-related commitments. Of course, my guilt with Shadow is huge right now - am afraid every time I leave him that it will be the last time. And yesterday I left him at Mom and Dad's while I was at the dentist and didn't realize the cleaning lady was coming so when he heard her upstairs, he was upset the entire time. I'm kicking myself (and wasn't too happy with her given that she didn't go let him out given all his barking) that I didn't just let him hang out in the car - but I thought it would be quieter at mom and dad's house. On the other hand, as I finally had to convince myself last week, I can't keep him from dying. And, so far, his quality of life is still generally good given that he is responsive and still excited about eating and going out. He comes up to me at the computer and puts his paws up and just wags his little tail as fast as it will go. There are also some emotional issues attached to his going that are mine and not his - where I thought my personal life would be before he was gone. But, as with the rest of life, there are no guarantees.

The leaves are gorgeous and starting to hit their red/yellow peak - too bad too much of today has to be spent inside - but at least some meeting spaces have windows!

Labels: appointments, assessment, fall, Greenbush, house, leaves, meetings, schools, Shadow, student teachers, teacher workshops, work

Thanks to Jonathon Dresner for pointing to this article during his commentary on the Cliopatria blog.

E

ncouraging Assessment From the Ground Up

By Donna Engelmann

In this space last month, I wrote about how assessment from the ground up means that accountability for colleges and universities ought to flow from the improvement of student learning and not the other way around. In the responses to that article, and in the work that my colleagues at Alverno College have done with other institutions over the last three decades, a compelling question arises: How can we encourage one another as faculty to engage in assessment that will work for our students and for us, and not just be a bureaucratic chore?

Under pressure from accreditors and others, just about every college and university has declared that it has some form of measuring learning. But we also know that assessment data are gathering dust in file cabinets around the country, and that learning outcomes have gone into syllabi and quietly died. But when this has not been the case, when faculty have embraced assessment as central to their teaching, what has made the difference? How and why have faculty tied learning activities and assessment to course outcomes so that students themselves see achieving the outcomes as essential to success in a course or program?

My Alverno colleagues have conducted workshops on the improvement of teaching and assessing at colleges and universities in every state in the union and around the globe. And we have hosted a summer teaching and assessment workshop at the college for over 30 years. Our goal has been to share how assessing students’ performance has improved learning, and has provided us with evidence to document progress in individual student learning and the effectiveness of the curriculum as a whole.

Read more here.

Labels: assessment, student learning