CTE - Assessment Workbook

 

Writing the assessment report will enable you to collect and examine the student artifacts and assessment data.  Inside the department, the report should brief the faculty on the strengths and weaknesses of the program and offer concrete suggestions for internal improvement.  Outside of the department, the report should communicate the strengths and weaknesses of the program as well as provide justifications for changes and recommendations.   

 

Typically, these assessment reports include:

1. Executive Summary
2. Background
3. Methodology
4. Assessment Description
5. Assessment Data
6. Analysis and Conclusions
7. Recommendations
8. Appendices

 

Faculty may use the programmatic assessment report template as a guide.

 

Executive Summary

This section (200-500 words) should include: 

• the aim of the assessment, including the specific program learning outcome being assessed
• the highlights of the data and the analysis
• the conclusions and recommendations

 

Background

In this section, faculty will need to 

• update (or create) a record of the assessment of the program learning outcome
• describe the course and the embedded assessment as well as changes from previous assessments
• updates on recommendations and previous assessments

 

Methodology

In this section, faculty will need to provide: 

• Course and program learning outcome being assessed
• Description of the parameters (platforms, population, dates)
• Explanation of the benchmark for the assessment

 

Assessment Description

Faculty members should narrate their assessment process, including

• faculty involved in creating the course-embedded assessment,
• faculty involved in assessing the student artifacts and their expertise
• process for collecting student artifacts
• process for assigning assessment responsibilities 

 

Assessment Data

In this section, faculty member should provide the assessment data such as:

• charts of student scores on rubrics (scores, averages, etc.)
• graphs of student learning benchmarks or comparative scores
• tables of student responses to questions

 

For an entire program, the faculty member should provide an overall snap shot:

Faculty may use the  Benchmarking and Recommendations Tracking template for assistance.

 

Analysis and Conclusions

In this section, faculty members will provide an analysis of the data provided by the assessment and offer conclusions based on the data such as:

• comparing differences between platforms
• describing previous changes to the curriculum or program
• providing context for differences between sections
• explaining observations provided by the instructors

This section may be combined with the assessment data section.

 

Recommendations

The faculty will need to determine recommendations as a result of the assessment process and should consider the following:

• Prioritize recommendations
• Clearly link assessment results to recommendations
• Identify how you will assess the impact of the recommendation
• Develop an implementation plan and timeline
• Appoint action items to specific persons

Recommendations may include:

• Requiring further inquiry
• Revising course learning outcomes
• Revising program learning outcomes
• Assisting students in improvement
• Changing the curriculum
• Changing the pedagogical approach
• Providing targeted faculty development
• Providing additional professional development
• Reviewing the program
• Reviewing support services
• Requesting additional faculty
• Requesting changes to the facilities
• Requesting additional facilities
• Requesting budget and planning monies

 

Appendices

At minimum, the appendices should include samples of the following:

• example of course-embedded assessment (prompt, description, rubric)
• example of the assessment instrument
• discussion notes and minutes related to assessment
• working documents
• samples of student artifacts