CSU Assessment Conference, April 18, 2008
Randy Swing speaking on "Proving and Improving the First Year"
- Institutional research + assessment + first year of college
- successful assessment creates action (effective practice)
- assaults on instruments/measurement/methodology/analysis
- who students are (input characteristics) + external conditions + what students do (engagement) + what institutions do (policies, practices, structures)
- measuring achievement of fy courses: outcomes (course goals) + student prior experience
- in between, look at: course contents, student engagement, course delivery structures, out-of-class environments
- "designators" in general education courses (Appalachia)
- IEO model - Inputs Environments Outcomes (three data points)
- engineering change study
- Built to Last, Good to Great (books - momentum theory); WCSU has both
- toolbox revisited
- reduced load in first year does not necessarily help; just takes longer to graduation (momentum)
- rethink path for first year students
- continuous enrollment important; data show semesters off are not effective
- summer terms: make them go?
- gpa at end of first year as a predictor of future success
- build on theories and national research
- change management, NOT assessment management: improvement is the ends, assessment is the means
- change is a political process
- debate should happen when identifying problems and opportunities
- design debate structures
- national study of freshman seminars
- engaging pedagogy: predictor of positive outcomes
- disaggregate the data: unit of analysis is individual classes
- manage change motivated by data
- problems with pre and post testing: measuring motivational change
- target specific sub-populations in the first year
- short essays every two weeks for freshmen writing
- "big classes are for teaching, small classes are for learning" (anecdotal)
- messy assessment processes
- fusion of quantitative and qualitative measurement?
- no "one size fits all" assessment