Session Information
09 SES 05 B, How Do You Know if It Worked? Systematically Assessing Individual and Program Outcomes
Research Workshop
Contribution
Increased governmental and corporate scrutiny in recent years has led to greater demands for accountability (Huisman & Curry, 2004; Jongbloed, Enders, & Salerno, 2008). Indeed, accountability is a hallmark of Bologna. Educational entities of all types (e.g., primary, secondary, and tertiary schools; state and national systems; training/technical institutes; state agencies) in countries in Europe, the U.S, and around the world need to demonstrate that what they do works; that they are achieving their goals (Kallison & Cohen, 2009; Malandra, 2008). To do so, educators and administrators need evidence (data) that is collected in a systematic manner. Moreover, they need evidence that the people they serve achieve intended outcomes, and that the program itself is successfully achieving its goals.
This 90-minute workshop will lead participants through a series of targeted exercises in which they will identify values, categories of effort, outcomes, assessment measures, and an assessment schedule for an organization or agency of their choosing. We assume most participants will be interested in developing assessment plans for the organization or agency for which they work. Although participants will not be able to develop a complete individual or programmatic assessment plan, they will develop one example of each element of a plan. It is our assumption that once participants understand how to develop one example, they will be able to design other examples on their own.
The workshop will be divided into six segments. To start, we will ask participants to introduce themselves and identify where they work, what they do, and why they chose to attend the workshop. We will also ask them to identify a single program that they are interested in assessing and that they will focus on for the rest of the workshop (15 minutes). Depending on the number of participants, we may elect to assign them to small groups (with others working at a like organization) as they work through the exercises. The next segment will focus on identifying values for both their selected program and the people served by that program. They will translate at least one value into and outcome (15 minutes). In the third segment, they will identify the categories of effort associated with that outcome (e.g., knowledge, skills, experience, disposition) (10 minutes). Next, they will write at least three variables that can be used to measure at least one category of effort (20 minutes). Fifth, they will list the constituencies from which they need to collect data in order to assess individual and program performance (10 minutes). In the final segment, participants will identify appropriate data collection mechanisms (e.g., surveys, interviews) and design a schedule for data collection from those constituencies (15 minutes). We will also allow time for final questions and comments (5 minutes). By the conclusion of the workshop, participants will have experience generating one example of each stage of the assessment process and can use that experience to more fully develop an assessment plan for their selected program.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Huisman, J., & Currie, J. (2004). Accountability in higher education: Bridge over troubled water? Higher Education, 48, 529-551. Jongbloed, B., Enders, J., & Salerno, C. (2008). Higher education and its communities: Interconnections, interdependencies, and a research agenda. Higher Education, 56, 303-324. Kallison, J. M., & Cohen, P. (2010). A new compact for higher education: Funding and autonomy for reform and accountability. Innovative Higher Education, 35, 37-49. Malandra, G. H. (2008). Accountability and learning assessment in the future of higher education. On the Horizon, 16, 57-71.
Search the ECER Programme
- Search for keywords and phrases in "Text Search"
- Restrict in which part of the abstracts to search in "Where to search"
- Search for authors and in the respective field.
- For planning your conference attendance you may want to use the conference app, which will be issued some weeks before the conference
- If you are a session chair, best look up your chairing duties in the conference system (Conftool) or the app.