From President Kahn: Working Together to Support and Assess Student Learning

Dear faculty colleagues, 

Two evaluators from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), our accrediting agency, recently visited campus to follow-up on a recommendation related to student learning outcomes assessment. The evaluators were struck by the high level of engagement and commitment of our faculty in ensuring students are learning. I personally am looking forward to bringing together the phenomenal talent and expertise of Shoreline faculty with a comprehensive planning process that ensures all students are learning. 

First, thanks to all of you who have worked so hard in building foundational pieces of learning outcomes assessment work over the past seven years. The next phase of this work is to make sure that not only are we assessing learning in a coherent, regular, and systematic way, but that we use assessment results to inform planning and allocation of resources at the College, such as staffing support.  

The good news is that we have made some changes that will align our work more consistently with the requirements of the accreditation standards.  The College has moved some folks from the institutional assessment and data management unit into a new division called Planning and Institutional Effectiveness (P.I.E.).  We are currently hiring for an Executive Director who will report directly to the President to ensure that planning is meeting the Board of Trustees’ expectations of the institution.  In addition, we now have dedicated staffing in place to support assessment of student learning efforts: Acting Director of Learning Outcomes Assessment (Romina Plozza) and Learning Outcomes Assessment Consultant (Bayta Maring).  These two areas (P.I.E. and Learning Outcomes Assessment) are working collaboratively to ensure that we have both the institutional- and instruction-specific work on an annual cycle tied to future program changes and budget development.  

Finally, we have new resources available:  

·         Learning Outcomes Assessment Handbook 

·         Learning Outcomes Assessment Sharepoint Site. 

Please review these resources prior to your upcoming division and departmental meetings, as you will be engaging in learning outcomes assessment work in those settings.  

What’s even more exciting? We will be collaborating to design measures of success that will guide planning and assessment.

Thank you for all that you do for our students! 

Jack 

Jack S. Kahn Ph.D.

President