Community colleges are putting increasing amounts of energy into measuring their students’ knowledge and skills, but those learning-assessment projects are still fragile, according to a report being released on Wednesday by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment.
The report, which draws on recent surveys of institutional researchers and chief academic officers at community colleges, found that student assessments are being driven largely by new demands from accreditors and national foundations. Faculty members themselves are not always enthusiastic participants.
When asked whether “the primary driver for learning-outcomes assessment at my institution is our faculty,” only 29 percent of the surveyed institutional researchers agreed. Only 35 percent reported that most departments on their campuses used learning-assessment data to improve teaching, and 14 percent agreed that “most part-time faculty are involved” in learning-outcomes assessment.
One reason for that lack of involvement, of course, is that community-college faculty members have taxing schedules and few incentives to spend time on assessment projects. If colleges want to build faculty participation, the institutional researchers said, they should pay faculty members for their time and include assessment activities in their contracts and annual performance reviews.
Fluid Population
The paper also expresses concern that some assessment models are badly suited for community colleges’ fluid student populations. If learning assessment focuses only on the capstone projects of students who complete a specific degree program, for example, the college will collect no data on the large majority of students who never complete a degree or who transfer to four-year institutions.
Several community colleges are cited as having unusually strong assessment programs. Those include the Community College of Baltimore County, which uses “common graded assignments” to gauge students’ progress in written communication and other general skills, and Miami Dade College, whose faculty members have defined 10 learning goals for all students.
The paper’s authors are Charlene R. Nunley, a former president of Montgomery College, in Maryland, who is now a professor of community-college administration at University of Maryland University College; Trudy H. Bers, executive director of research, curriculum, and planning at Oakton Community College, in Illinois; and Terri M. Manning, associate vice president for institutional research at Central Piedmont Community College, in North Carolina.
