General Education Assessment: The Promise and Perils of a Statewide Community of

Practice

Bill Moore

WA St. Bd. For Comm. & Tech. Colleges

360-704-4346 bmoore@sbctc.edu

AAC&U PresentationFebruary 2010

Robin Jeffers

Bellevue College

425-564-4049 robin.jeffers@bellevuecollege.edu

What does “evidence of student learning” look like?

Competing Paradigms?Assessment for

LearningAssessment for Accountability

Intent Formative (improvement)

Summative (judgment)

Focus Internal External

Emphasis Engagement Compliance

Instrumentation Multiple, triangulated

Standardized

Nature of Evidence Quantitative & qualitative

Quantitative

Use and Communi-cation of Results

Multiple feedback loops

ReportingStr

ateg

ic D

imen

sion

s

Peter Ewell, “Assessment, Accountability and Improvement: Revisiting the Tension,” 2009, available at http://learningoutcomesassessment.org/

Outline/Overview

Articulating the “tensions” around general education assessment

Exploring ways of navigating/negotiating those tensions (and who should be involved)

Going “meta”: making a case for a “community of practice” that extends beyond the local context

Assessment for Learning

Assessment for Accountability

An Intractable Tug of War?

How do you see these paradigms and tensions operating in your own experiences with general education assessment?

How are they being addressed at your institution?

Negotiating the Tensions

Observing & judging performance based on

explicit criteria

Providing feedback based on those

judgments

Assessment for Learning

Assessment for Accountability

Observing & judging performance based on

explicit criteria

Building a Regional/Statewide

Community of Practice

Face-to-faceCommunication

At-a-Distance Communication

Retreats Regular e-mail and phone conversation

Annual conference Listserv as communication tool, quick research

Focused convenings Faculty learning communities (FLCs)

Occasional mini-projects based on needs, interests

Web-based sessions via Elluminate

What do you see as the strengths/weaknesses of this kind of regional or statewide CoP around assessment?

 If a CoP seems worthwhile, what might you do to build and sustain such an effort given these challenging fiscal times?

Critical Dynamics in Building & Sustaining

Assessment Community of Practice

CompositionFluid membershipOrientation to the group and

ongoing “conversation”Internal/external focusNature and depth of engagement

College leaders/champions for assessment need to define an approach that synthesizes/ balances learning and accountability perspectives

Challenge locally is involving thoughtful peers to produce work meaningful for campus AND translatable to external audiences

Broader and external community of practice can support, strengthen, and reinforce institutional work over time

Conclusion: Balancing the Tensions