Volkwein's Twelve-Step Recipe for Establishing an Assessment Program

1. Start with an Assessment Model that shapes research & data collection activities so that they provide information about student learning and are congruent with the institutional mission and goal attainment. Whether derived from the assessment literature or adapted from another college, a model encourages clarity, serves as a guide for designing data collection and analysis, and makes campus assessment efforts more efficient.
   
   
2. Avoid the Paralysis of the Grand Plan. Don’t wait until you have a model and the "perfect" plan before you begin.—no campus has a perfect plan. Just outline one and let it grow.
   
   
3. Conduct an Inventory of existing sources of assessment information. Begin new data collection activities only after reviewing & learning from what’s already available.
   
   
• Admission data
• Student Grades
• Student Rating of Instruction
• Student Transcripts and course-taking patterns
• Retention, graduation rates by student sub-group
• Academic program reviews
• Department placement exams
• Career placement and other alumni information
• Past surveys of students and employers
  
  
4. When collecting and analyzing data, Ask the Right Question:
   
   
• Do we meet the standard?
• How do we compare?
• Are we attaining our goals?
• Are we getting better?
  
  
5. Start simply and do the do-able first – Don’t try to do everything at once.
   
   
6. Identify the existing processes and programs which make a difference at your institution and tie into them. Use successful programs as internal models for less successful programs.
   
   
7. Experiment with small Pilot programs and initiatives - then evaluate before continuing or expanding them. Plan to implement programs in phases.
   
   
8. Use assessment results in visible ways. Make ample provision for reporting to relevant audiences. Most campuses spend too much time & resources collecting data and not enough time and resources on communicating information.
   
   
9. Create a visible person/office for assessment activity. Presidential leadership and support for assessment efforts is a necessary but not sufficient condition to produce successful formative assessment. Someone must be given responsibility for day-to-day and week-to-week support for assessment activities, AND for being a local campus expert for those seeking information and assistance. Leadership and support must ALSO come from Vice Presidents, Deans, and Chairs.
   
   
10. Seek faculty involvement through departments. Involve not only faculty but also students and student affairs staff.
    
    
11. Link assessment to faculty/staff development and retraining, and include this a part of your assessment plan.
    
    
12. Make provisions for revising the plan. Make it clear that assessment is not fixed – but evolving, changeable.

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