Assessment can be very political given that competition and conflict may impact each step of the assessment process. In addition to competition for resources, there is conflict in defining an issue or problem to study. The conceptual framework for addressing an issue, the outcomes, resources, strategies, measurement, and reporting may all contribute to the political challenges of assessment.

Take alcohol use on campus. To begin thinking about assessment of alcohol use on campus, one needs to decide what lens one will use to assess the problem. Is alcohol use an individual health issue? Is it a public policy issue? Is it both or something else entirely? Defining the issue will dictate other steps in the assessment process.

The definition of the issue then determines the conceptual framework that will be used to both understand the issue and determine how it can be addressed. The conceptual framework and stakeholders will influence the articulation of outcomes. For example, should the outcome be to reduce the number of students that need to be sent to the emergency room for their alcohol use? Should it be to decrease the number of students violating alcohol policy? Or should an outcome be a reduction in the number of students reporting having their study or sleep disrupted due to someone else’s alcohol use? Each of these outcomes may have a political component and the decision as to which outcomes should be examined may have to be negotiated.

With the outcomes set, the issue of resources rises to the surface. What inputs, or raw materials, are available to foster these outcomes? Are there adequate resources to support them? The inputs are also affected by the location of the issue on the larger political agenda of the institution. If alcohol use is a hot topic on campus then it will likely receive appropriate funding. Furthermore, if it is a hot topic, there will likely be more people that have a stake in the issue, each with an opinion regarding outcomes and how they should be addressed. The hotter the topic, the more political the topic.

Once the inputs have been allocated, the time comes to develop and implement strategies to address the issue. Again, this is influenced by the definition of the issue. If alcohol use is defined as a health issue strategies that focus on reducing harm may be put into place. However, if alcohol use is seen as a policy issue, strategies may include creating new policies or increasing enforcement. These are different approaches to address the same issue. It is possible that a comprehensive set of strategies is developed that includes both of these approaches. There usually has to be negotiation given the finite resources allocated to address the issue.

The outcomes may be affected by politics in other ways. First, is the measurement of outcomes being used for program improvement, accountability, or both? This is important as these decisions will influence what data are collected and how. Second, measuring the effectiveness of the strategies to meet the outcomes for accountability or program improvement is dependent upon the definition of the issue as that will dictate which measures are used. Will a measure be the number of students sent to the emergency room for alcohol related issues? Will a measure be the average number of drinks consumed per week or the number of policy violators?

Politics enters this step of the assessment process not just in regard to identifying the measures, but also in defining what determines success. Is success a 10% reduction in the number of students sent to the emergency room, a 50% reduction, or can success only be defined when no students are sent to the emergency room?  Is success defined by a 25% reduction in alcohol violations or the nature of the violations themselves? Perhaps alcohol policy violations for underage students only include the equivalent of a six pack of beer or less rather than two cases of beer. The threshold for effectiveness has to be negotiated among the stakeholders.

Reporting the results can be political. The question of what can and should be reported has to be answered and often different stakeholders have different opinions. This is complicated when you consider the audiences and the sensitivity of the data. Who should know what, how, and when?

Finally, using the data to effect change can be political. Once the assessment data has been collected and reported, what improvements should be made? Each stakeholder has ideas regarding this as well. Are there some strategies that were more effective than others? How does one define an ineffective strategy and should it be discontinued? Should new strategies be developed? Should the issue be defined differently?

Politics is inherent throughout the assessment process. It may impact each step. Thus, it is important to consider and attempt to anticipate the politics of assessment before you embark on an assessment project. Doing so will help you be more intentional and anticipate challenges before they arise so that you can minimize the impact. A little political consideration will go a long way to produce effective assessment.

 

 

 

I was meeting with an assessment committee a few weeks ago and one of the first questions that came up was “how does a division of student affairs can go about building a culture of assessment.” As I contemplated the answer, the analogy of building a house came to mind. Not that I could ever build a house, but the basic framework of a house seemed to fit. For me, building a culture of assessment includes four basic, but essential, components – foundation, roof, walls, and fasteners to hold it all together.

First, you need to build a strong foundation. The foundation of any division of student affairs is the staff. They support students by implementing the mission and goals, working in the trenches, and just making sure everything runs smoothly. To have a strong assessment foundation, these folks need to be on board with assessment embracing the position that assessment is imperative as it leads to improved programs and services. In addition to having a positive attitude, staff need to believe that they are supported in this work and feel competent performing assessment. This is where the other parts of the house are important.

While the foundation is essential, every house needs a good roof as well. A foundation without a roof is just a big swimming pool. That is why the chief student affairs officer (CSAO) is so critical. In many ways, the CSAO is the assessment champion. Without her support, a culture of assessment that is embedded in the fabric of the division cannot be established. The CSAO needs to articulate to her staff, and to others in the institute, that assessment is an indispensable function of student affairs. She then needs to back up this rhetoric with actions and resources. Public recognition of good assessment work is crucial. A clear message is sent when the CSAO applauds a department for undertaking assessment, especially if the assessment results suggest that the program or service isn’t as effective as it should be and, as a result, changes are made. This support of assessment in light of negative results endorses the notion that assessment is primarily for quality improvement. While accountability is another purpose for assessment, staff will be more likely to begin engaging in assessment if they view it as a path to improving their programs and services. The accountability piece can be added at a later point. The CSAO can also support assessment by allocating resources, which leads us to the walls of the house.

The walls of the house are the infrastructure that keeps the house together. Like an imploding building, if the walls fall the roof falls to the foundation. infrastructure be supported by both the CSAO (roof) and the staff (foundation) is needed to maintain the culture of assessment. One element of this infrastructure is a reporting process for assessment. There needs to be a way for the results and the data to be shared. This sharing is important because people need to know results before they can implement any improvements. It is also helpful to share results because, similar to social norming, it validates the need for assessment. Through sharing, staff are able to see successful examples of assessment and learn new tips and techniques to use in their own department. Disseminating results also helps demonstrate the student affairs is committed to quality improvement. Another element of the infrastructure is incorporating assessment into articulated responsibilities through job descriptions. By including assessment responsibilities into job descriptions, assessment is validated. Assessment skills will become a basis for recruitment and evaluation. But, most important, assessment will be viewed as a vital element of a job, not simply an add-on.

Finally, you need something to keep it all together. Like nails, screws, and the occasional duct tape that hold a house together, professional development opportunities help staff develop the skills and knowledge to maintain a culture of assessment together. Like screws keeping everything connected, professional develop fastens the foundation, roof, and walls of assessment. The screws and nails can include convention workshops, webinars, readings, assessment conferences, books, and consultants such as those at StudentVoice to help staff overcome anxiety and acquire the skills and knowledge to employ assessment. Without this professional development, a culture of assessment cannot get established nor be sustained, as staff will not be able to continually improve their skills.

If you are trying to develop a culture of assessment on your campus, think about building a house and work to develop each component – foundation, roof, walls, and screws/nails. By doing this, you will develop a culture of assessment that will stand the test of time.

Good luck!

If you have questions or comments, feel free to contact me at gavin.henning@dartmouth.edu.

I have lived here in New Hampshire for the past 16 years when I came to be a hall director at the University of New Hampshire after finishing my master’s degree from Michigan State University in 1993. I am originally from Michigan and my parents still live there. My partner and I get back to visit them at least once a year. This past December was a “Henning Holiday” meaning that we would spend it with my family in Michigan. We were excited since my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew from Seattle were going to be at my parents’ house as well. 

As we began planning our trip, I began thinking about it as having an outcome – an outcome that impacts planning and assessment. As I have said in the past, assessment is not an activity. It is a state of mind – one that I always seem to be in. (Visit http://www.studentvoice.com/app/Blogs/Gavin/post/Assessment-is-a-State-of-Mind.aspx for that discussion.) Like developing outcomes and the strategies to promote them to help our students learn, thinking about our trip to Michigan helped us understand “where we were going, how will we get there, and how will we know when we arrive.” 

You may define some of the terms I use differently than I do, but I think you will get the gist of the analogy so that you can share this with others to educate them about outcomes.  (Visit http://wwwstudentvoice.com/app/Blogs/Gavin/post/Inputs2c-Outputs2c-OutcomesOh-My!-Nuances-of-Assessment-Language.aspx for a greater explanation of each of these terms.) 

So, in December, our goal was to drive to my parents’ house for a visit.  We had some inputs for the trip which were the raw materials to help us achieve our goal. The inputs included the car to get us there, the money to purchase the gas to fuel the car, snacks to keep us fueled, money for tolls, and the like. There were also outputs that served as quantitative metrics to document progression towards the outcome. These outputs included the total amount of time we took or the money that was spent on food, gas, and hotel during our trip (resources used rather than the resources available when we started), the average miles per gallon of gas used and the average miles per hour we traveled (efficiency of resources used), and the number of speeding tickets received (effectiveness of resources used). By the way, we didn’t get any speeding tickets this time. I learned my lesson from the Pennsylvania State Police on a previous trip. 

Now the outputs are helpful in understanding our trip. We can say how efficient and effective we used our resources, but we can’t use the outputs to help us determine if we met our goal or not (getting to my parents’ house). This is similar to how tracking the number of students that attend a program or aggregating their satisfaction with that program, while helpful, doesn’t tell us if they learned anything from the program (which is the ultimate goal).  

Our outcome is our desired result. For the trip to Michigan, the desired result was reaching my parents’ house. But this isn’t even good enough. Outcomes have to be more specific. As the intelligent folks at the University of Central Florida in their program assessment handbook say, outcomes should be SMART – Specific, Measureable, Aggressive, but attainable, Results-oriented, and Time-bound. So, our outcome could be more effectively written this way, “As a result of our trip to Michigan, Gavin and Terri will arrive at 12 Round Lake Road, Saginaw, MI at 10pm on Saturday, December 20^th.” The timing was important because we wanted to make sure we were there in time for my father's birthday on Sunday the 21^st. The specificity of the exact address of my parents’ house and the arrival time are important so that we could plan our trip and assess are accomplishment of that outcome.  

Once we had our outcome, inputs, and outputs, we needed strategies for reaching our outcome. Here is where specificity of the outcome was important, again. 

There are two major ways to get from where I live in Concord, NH to Saginaw, MI with some minor variations on these. For the sake of illustration, we will just focus on these two routes. Route 1, the most direct route, is west across New Hampshire, through New York state, then through Canada. Here is a map for folks like myself who are visual processors.              

Route 2 runs south through Massachusetts, Connecticut, and then west through Pennsylvania and Ohio and north into Michigan.                   

Route 1 takes about 15 hours from Point A to Point B while Route 2 takes about 17 hours. The natural inclination is to take Route 1 because it takes less time.. However, this is the moment where considering the strategies for reaching your outcomes are really important. While Route 1 is shorter, it actually takes more effort. Route 2 is almost entirely comprised of major interstate highways from New Hampshire to Michigan. Route 1, on the other hand, includes some winding, two lane highways, through New Hampshire and Vermont. While beautiful during the day, these country roads can be tricky at night and in the winter.  

There is also the issue of Buffalo, NY. I like Buffalo. Some of my good friends live in Buffalo. But, have you been to Buffalo in the winter? From my experience, you never know what you are going to get weather-wise. The rest of the state could be sunny and clear and at the same time there could be a nasty snow squall right over Buffalo. You just have to be prepared for that type of adventure – buckle-up, turn on the wipers, white-knuckle the steering wheel at 10 and 2 and let the fun begin! 

Another issue with Route 1 is that you have to go through Canada. Not that Canada is bad. It is a fantastic country and you should visit if you haven't been, but you just have to be more prepared since you will need a passport. Also, there used to be stretch of roadway going through Canada along this route where there was a vast expanse of nothingness. It was four hours without a place to stop for food, gas, or nature’s calling. With Route 2, you are guaranteed a nice service area almost every 45 minutes for all of your traveling needs.

Route 1 is faster, but you have to plan each step of the trip, or strategy, more carefully. 

Our choice was to be safe and take Route B. This choice had implications for our planning and implementation given the outcome we developed. In order to get to Saginaw by 10pm on Saturday, December 20^th and be as efficient and as effective with our resources (read: no speeding tickets which actually increase the cost and time of your trip) we would need to be on the road by 7am. This would allow for two stops for meals, gas, and bathroom breaks and three additional gas/bathroom breaks. We try to maximize our stops by accomplishing at least two of these tasks per stop. (Remember I said assessment and planning are a state of mind for me.) 

With this information, we can not only assess the achievement of our goal, but how effectively and efficiently we reached it which would allow us to plan better for our next trip to Michigan. Knowing where we are going (and when) can help us determine which road to take and allow us to determine if we have arrived (or met our goal). 

As you can see, developing a specific outcome impacts the process for selecting the strategies to support that. This is just what we do with our work with students. Once we determine a goal (e.g., develop leadership skills), we develop specific outcomes (e.g., as a result of the Emerging Leaders Course, students will be able to effectively facilitate a student organization meeting by the end of the course). We can then consider our inputs (e.g., staff and financial resources) and develop our strategies (e.g., identify three best practices for facilitating meetings) to foster that outcome. We can then measure our outputs (e.g., number of students in the class) and summative outcome (e.g., the extent to which students can effectively facilitate a student organization meeting) and make decisions for improvement.  Following this process keeps goals, inputs, outputs, outcomes, and strategies aligned increasing our efficiency and effectiveness and allowing for easier assessment. 

Apply this analogy to your next trip and let me know if assessment doesn’t start becoming a state of mind. 

References
University of Central Florida. (2004). Program assessment handbook. Orlando, FL. Author. 

Assessment in higher education is relatively new compared to other sub-fields. Because of a need, assessment has evolved in many places simultaneously. People throughout higher education simply started doing it and learning along the way. Unlike disciplines such as sociology, biology, or studio art, there isn’t necessarily a scholarship of assessment. There isn’t a common language across disciplines. Each discipline seems to have its own assessment language that may be similar to that in some disciplines and very different than others. I encountered this exact situation with our library staff and as a result added some new terms to my assessment vocabulary, evolving my assessment skills and knowledge.

Last fall I was approached by our library staff to do an assessment workshop with them. We sat down to discuss the details and I asked, “So what would you like to focus on?” A member of the management team said, “Well, our assessment committee is developing an assessment plan and we want to make sure everyone knows how to write outcomes and know the difference between inputs, outputs, and outcomes.”

I hesitated briefly. An outcome development workshop I could do. I had done many in the past. But, help them discriminate between inputs, outputs, and outcomes? Now, that was going to be a little more difficult since those weren’t terms in my assessment vocabulary. I could make some assumptions as to the differences, but I needed to do some research in preparation.

So, I went to the library and talked with a reference librarian.

Joshua, who I call my “smart library friend,” is a reference librarian who leads the assessment team. He gave me a copy of the Association of College Research Libraries’ Standards and Assessment for Academic Libraries Workbook by Nelson and Fernekes. These were the standards that the assessment committee was using to develop its assessment plan. So I read the standards and came to realize that the assessment terminology used by librarians was very helpful in understanding different elements of assessment. I began adopting some of their terms to describe assessment.

Here is how I visualize the language of assessment.

 

The foundation for all assessment is the mission. According to Bryson in Strategic Planning for Public and Non-Profit Organization, a mission clarifies an organization’s purpose or why it should be doing what it does (2004, p. 102). In this pyramid the mission denotes the institutional mission, divisional mission, and the departmental mission. I didn’t include each of them to make the model manageable. Each mission should be aligned witheach other so it is transparent how the departmental mission supports the divisional mission and how the divisional mission supports the institutional mission. As you move up the hierarchy, the components get more specific and more numerous. You have one institutional mission, but multiple departmental missions. Each departmental mission will have multiple goals. Each goal will have multiple outcomes. 

After the mission come the goals. Goals are an end result written in broad terms. An example of a goal is: “as a result of participating in the Emerging Leaders Program, students will increase their leadership skills.” This is a goal since the specific type of leadership skills is not described. It is important that goals are aligned with the departmental mission. If not, senior administrators may wonder why a department is working towards a goal that isn’t consistent with their mission, which may jeopardize resources.

Next in line in the model are inputs. This was a new assessment term I learned from my library colleagues. Inputs are the raw materials that are used to develop a program or intervention which can include staff, budget, facilities, etc.(Nelson and Fernekes, 2002, p. 3). Inputs for an Emerging Leaders Program may include $1500 and two staff members. You may ask why documenting inputs is important in the assessment process. It is helpful to know what you are beginning with. If you find out that a program was ineffective, one reason could be insufficient resources.

After inputs come outputs.  Outputs are what I used to consider program outcomes. According to Nelson and Fernekes (2002),outputs serve to document work done (p. 3) or as I conceptualize it, progression towards an outcome or goal. An output for an Emerging Leaders Program would include the number of sessions in the program, the average number of students participating in a given semester, or the number of students completing the program. The outputs in and of themselves don’t tell us a lot. However, they provide context for understanding the outcome.

Next are outcomes. For Nelson and Fernekes (2002), outcomes are ways in which library users are changed as a result of their contact with the library’s resources and programs, (p. 3). I conceptualize an outcome as the desired effect of aprogram, service, or intervention but it is more specific than a goal. It is important to note that it is participant focused – not facilitator focused. An outcome for an Emerging Leader Program could be “as a result of participating in the Emerging Leaders Program, students will develop and hone meeting facilitation skills.” You may ask why is the distinction that an outcome is participant focused important. It helps us focus on our ultimate target. In the past, assessment would have goals and then we would assess those depending on what the facilitator offered. A facilitator focused assessment for an Emerging Leaders Program might include questions such as “were the instructors knowledgeable?” “were the instructors engaging?” “did the instructors get to know you as a person?” Now, these are important since doing these things will help students learn skills. However, the focus is on the facilitator and not on the student, which is where we want it to be. Outcomes that are participant centered help us place the focus on what the students are able to know, do or value as a result of the program or interaction.

This is why I like to use the terms outputs and outcomes because these terms are more discernible than learning outcomes and program outcomes. In my experience these latter terms are abbreviated to “outcomes” and then in conversation we don’t know which ones we are talking about.

Here is an analogy that I have found in understanding the difference between input, output, and outcome to folks I work with.

Inputs are like electricity. You need electricity before you can have light. But electricity that is not connected to a light is an idle resource.

Light is an output. It is helpful. You can measure it by watts or volts like you would attendance at a program or number of students served by a department. It helps you know how bright a room can be, but in and of itself, doesn’t mean much. You can light a room, but if no one is in it, you are wasting electricity (inputs/resources) just like you can have a program, but no one learns anything.

Outcomes add the value to the output. They are your ultimate target. Your intent isn’t to get a certain number of students to a program. Your intent is to have the students who attend learn something. Sometimes the attendance is important because it may impact resource allocation, but it isn’t your target. In this case, the light can help a student study. The student wouldn’t be able to study in a dark room without a light that was connected to electricity. All three are important, but are important when they are interrelated to each other.

Now you need the components to foster the outcomes. The first of these components, and next in the assessment language hierarchy are strategies. A strategy is a means to achieving an outcome or goal. A strategy for an outcome where students develop meeting facilitation skills may be students identifying and describing three best practices in meeting facilitation. There would likely be other strategies included to help foster this outcome. This wouldn’t be the only one.

The highest point of the hierarchy is the action step. These are the “to do” list items for strategies. An action step is a way to implement a strategy to achieve an outcome or goal.

If the strategy is to have students identify and describe three best practices in meeting facilitation, action steps might include identifying meetings to attend, developing an opportunity for reflection, developing a framework for that reflection, evaluating the experience, etc.

Strategies and action steps are important to document for two reasons. First, if you do not achieve your goal you are going to want to know why. Reasons could include misaligned strategies or incomplete action steps among other possibilities. Or, if you did reach your goal, wouldn’t it be useful to know if three of your strategies are just as effective as or more effective than seven others? Documenting and assessing the action steps help you understand how effective individual strategies are.

This is the language of assessment I have learned and it has been helpful with the folks Iwork with so that we are on the same page. You may prefer to use different terms than I do. That is okay. However, it is important to always clarify with colleagues what you or they mean by the assessment language used. They may be using the same definition that you are. Or, they may not. We all need to be speaking the same language to assess effectively.

I am glad I worked with our library staff. It provided me the opportunity to learn some new terms and add them to my assessment vocabulary so I could further develop my assessment knowledge.

References

Bryson, J.M. (2004). Strategic planning for public and non-profit organizations (3^rdEd.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Nelson, W.N, & Fernekes, R. W. (2002). Standards and assessment for academic libraries: A workbook. Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries.

 

Last night I was attending a presentation on the SAT test and culturally literacy.While the presenter was beginning her overview, I unconsciously began counting people in the room. Turning to my colleague I whispered, “42 students, 14 of which appear to be students of color, and 11 staff are here. That’s pretty good.” She then whispered back, “Gavin, you assess everything.”

Perhaps I do.

Is that a bad thing? Is it unhealthy? Should I seek professional help?

Recently, I was in the grocery store and I had a realization. Assessment isn’t an activity. It’s a state of mind.

Yea, I know what you’re thinking. Who thinks about assessment when they’re grocery shopping? What a geek! I can even hear some of you saying “yes, he definitely needs help with that obsession.” But, let me explain.

I am the one that goes grocery shopping in our house. For me, it’s a game – how quickly can I get in and get out with all of the items on my list. I know. I’m a geek.

But if you think about it, I approach grocery shopping like we might approach an initative on our campuses. In other words, we set goals and determine our overall effectiveness at reaching your goal. Or at least that is what we should be doing. For me, the goal is to get everything on my shopping list in the least amount of time possible and at the lowest possible price. If I leave the grocery store and didn’t get everything on my list then I didn’t reach goal. This is similar for a student participating in a program who doesn’t learn everything we had intended.

I start the way many of you start your grocery shopping. I take the list from the refrigerator and rewrite it in the order I will approach the items in the store. Nothing ruins a good “grocery run” better than having finishing your shopping and realizing you forgot something at the other end of your store. Putting the items on the list in this order is very similar to what we do with students.When we develop our learning goals and outcomes we do so in a progressive way since students need to do develop lower level skills such as remembering before they can do more complex things such as synthesis and evaluation.

Once I have my list, I then need to decide what is the best day and time to go shopping. I typically go early on Sunday mornings since the store is almost empty then. However, there is a balancing act in reaching my goals. While, there may be few customers at 7am, the stockers haven’t stocked all of the shelves yet, particularly the produce. Thus, I can quickly go through the store, but I might be able to get everything on my list.

Now if I go later, say 9am, the shelves are stocked, but there are many more people in store. Navigation is much more difficult because there are many more obstacles. I feel like I am in a movie car chase scene – weaving around other shoppers, dodging the soda delivery guys with their large pallets on the side of the aisle, and pushing the cart with my left hand so I can grab the items off the shelf with my right hand without stopping. I really think I could be a much more efficient shopper if I had a bell or horn on my cart. Rrring. Rrring. Honk. HONK!

The other challenge to shopping at 9am is long check-out lines. These are the biggest waste of time since you aren’t accomplishing anything. I can only read so much about Britney Spears and aliens in Congress.

Finally, I decided that I could most efficiently and effectively reach my goal by going shopping around 8am on Sundays. The shelves are stocked. And although there a few people in the store, there aren’t enough to be a hindrance. Also, by the time I get to the register, they usually have three lanes open so I don’t have to wait. I can usually get in and out of the store in about 20 minutes. 

This approach to grocery shopping is assessment – establishing a goal, developing strategies to reach that goal, and then determining how effectively and efficiently you’ve reached it. I am sure you do a lot more assessment than you think.

After the cultural literacy presentation I was talking with a student and she asked what I thought about it. I began saying that students were engaged, there were some really insightful points about bias of the SAT that demonstrated reflective and critical thinking. After that conversation,  I realized that I had just assessed that presentation. Of course, it wasn’t a systematized in the sense that learning outcomes weren’t established and then evaluated based on multiple data collection methods, but nonetheless, it was assessment.

For me, assessment is not just an activity. It’s a state of mind. The more systematized, the better, but any assessment is better than no assessment.  Assessment can’t just be an afterthought. Some type needs to be embedded in everything we do. This will enable us to create the best possible educational experience for students to foster holistic growth. The more assessment you do, the more it will creep into other parts of your life.

Is that such a bad thing?

 

 

Hello.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. It is my first. And to be honest I was a little nervous when I was asked to do this. I hope you find the content useful.

It might be helpful if you knew a little bit about me. Currently, I am the Director of Student Affairs Planning, Evaluation, and Research at Dartmouth College. I have been working in student affairs assessment full-time now for over eight years. Before that I spent seven years working in residential life but along the way I gained experience in judicial programs, diversity initiatives, leadership development and a few other student affairs areas. I love this kind of work because it satiates my curiosity as well as my need to do things the best way possible. The other exciting element of this job is I get to work with a variety of functional areas within student affairs so I am always learning something new. I also have the pleasure of serving as the Chair for ACPA’s Commission for Assessment and Evaluation.

Since I have been doing assessment work, one the biggest challenges is the time commitment needed. I often hear things such as “where I am going to find the time to do that. I don’t even have enough time to breath, let alone do assessment” Or, “my staff just doesn’t have the time. They are busy addressing student needs. Assessment takes them away from student contact.” Yes, assessment takes time. But, you have to look at it as an investment of time that will save you resources at the end. Just like saving for retirement, if you can invest a little bit now, the payoffs will be worth it. Also, assessment does help students directly since you and your programs and services are better able to foster student learning and meet their needs.

Here is an analogy that might be helpful for you and your staff as a way to overcome this time barrier. Have you ever been to one of those arcade pizza places like Chuck E. Cheese? They are the wonderful places with adults eating pizza while children run around the place jumping in piles of plastic balls, riding indoor merry-go-rounds, and spending tokens upon tokens on all sorts of arcade games. Well, one of the games many of these arcades have is the timed basketball game. You’ve seen it. It is the game with the basketball hoop about six feet away. There is netting or Plexiglas on the sides so the ball doesn’t bounce all over the restaurant after you miss the shot. You get three balls and the object is to get as many balls in the hoop as you can in the time allotted, generally one minute. Sometimes, the stakes are raised and there may be two hoops next to each other so you are not only competing against the clock but a real live person. The stakes become even higher when a 40-year old person like me has to compete against a 10-year old who is much more skilled and agile at these types of games. Depending on your score, you could even earn tickets that can exchanged for inexpensive rubber toys, stickers, and stuffed animals, that you just “have to have” before you leave.

Well, think about students affairs like this basketball game where getting a high score is equivalent to getting our jobs done well. We are trying to do a lot of things (read shoot many basketballs) with very little time (read a clock running down) and we hope that some of what we do hits the target (read fostering student development and learning).

The basketball game sets you up for ineffectiveness from the very beginning, the same way we are set up in student affairs – with a lot to do and not enough time. The clock on the game is large and the numbers are red. The game designers probably say red is easier to see, but think about the symbolism of red. It often means “stop” or “danger.” I think the red clock is a way to intimidate us. The next element of the game that set us up is that there are three balls waiting in the trough at the bottom of the game. Picture this, there is a large digital clock with red numbers staring you down and three balls that are screaming “shoot me.” The natural instinct is to start with one ball and toss them towards (not necessarily into) the basket as fast as possible so your arms look they are attached to the paddle wheel of a steamship, going around in a continuous motion until the game stops. Our hope is that the faster we shoot the basketballs, the more basketballs we shoot, and then the better chance we have of getting some through the net. We take the perspective that this is a game of chance and we shoot faster to increase our chances.

This is often how we operate in student affairs. There are too many things to do in very little time. When we try to implement strategies, which we aren’t sure will work, to foster student learning, it is like tossing those balls as fast as we can in hopes that some will go into the basket. We hope that if we try enough strategies some of them will work for some of the students. All the while we are looking at the semester clock wondering how much time we have left dreading that fateful buzzer called finals or perhaps graduation. This approach isn’t a very efficient or effective use of our resources.

There is another way. Assessment can help.

Imagine taking a deep breath before you even put the tokens into the machine. There is no pressure at this point. No money has been spent. During this breath you make some assessments: How far away is basket? Is the basket regulation size? Once you add your tokens, rather than simply shooting as fast as possible you take a couple of extra seconds and observe what is happening. Now that you can actually touch the basketball you assess it. Is it regulation size? How much air is in it? Once the ball hits the backboard and rim, what happens? Does the ball bounce far away from the rim or backboard because there is too much air in the ball, or the board or rim is “hard”? Is a “swish” the only the ball can get into the basket because anything that bounces off the rim or backboard doesn’t have a chance to go through the net? You can make these observations in a few quick seconds. Once you have made these observations, you can adjust your shooting to meet the needs of the environment. This is assessment. You have turned a game of chance into a game of skill. While you do need some skill shooting baskets, assessment can help you be more successful and maximize the skill and knowledge that you have.

While I haven’t measured this, I would bet a handful of Chuck E. Cheese tokens that if you took the breath before you began the game to assess the environment and took a few extra seconds with your first shots to assess how well you were doing, you would be more successful in the end being more effective with the resources that you had, regardless if you were playing against the clock or a 10-year old next to you.

This is what assessment is all about. A little time at the beginning, perhaps before students even arrive on campus, performing a needs assessment and taking a little time in the middle for formative assessment (measuring the process or progression towards goals) will help us be more effective. We can then take a look at the summative assessment (the number of baskets made or how effective we were in the end in reaching our goal) and make changes for the next time we play. After a couple of games we would become more affective. Fostering student learning and development takes assessment and practice.

If we take this little extra time for assessment, we will not only be more effective, but we might even be able to get enough tickets to get that Tweety bird stuffed animal we had been eyeing.

I hope this blog entry was useful. Please take a moment to share your thoughts.