Purpose | Members

Purpose

Northwestern University has reconvened the assessment and accreditation council to develop a framework for the assessment of undergraduate education.  The Council, reporting to the Provost, will follow-up on the university’s last accreditation visit in order to look more comprehensively at assessment.  The Council’s efforts will focus initially on undergraduate educational assessment and gradually expand to other areas.

The purpose of assessment is to support evidence-driven decision-making and measure knowledge, skills, or abilities against defined competencies or learning outcomes for the improvement of learning.  At Northwestern, our strategy will be to assess curricular and co-curricular activities in an integrated manner.  Rather than a centrally controlled and monitored student assessment process, the framework that is developed will be a faculty driven entity that will help the understanding of the assessment efforts that are currently underway across the University.  The proposed framework does not intend to prescribe one assessment methodology for measuring student learning.  The framework that will be established by faculty and staff will:

• Raise awareness and educate faculty and others of assessment processes and outcomes
• Develop a current inventory of assessment efforts that summarizes the assessment activities undertaken by the various academic and administrative units at the university
• Develop a set of best practices for assessments based on the inventory results
• Provide a forum for addressing assessment issues facing the University
• In support of the measurement of student learning, the assessment framework will develop an assessment vocabulary, implementation processes, and methods for data generation and reporting.  The vocabulary is intended to provide a baseline of terms.
• Develop a set of building blocks and best practices, with the appropriate stakeholders, that can be assembled, modified, or shaped to a particular unit’s integrated approach to learning, teaching, and assessment
• Develop a foundation of terms, processes, and procedures so that all stakeholders involved with the development or consumption of assessment results may operate from a common understanding
• Develop an overarching strategy for developing and implementing the goals of the framework

Members of the Council:

• Bill Banis, Vice President for Student Affairs
• Ron Braeutigam, Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education
• Rachelle Brooks, Director, College Sports Project, Administration and Planning
• Steve Carr, Academic Associate Dean, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science
• Dona Cordero, Director, Office of Change Management
• Sally Ewing, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs, School of Communication
• Mary Finn, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
• Debbie Crimmins, Senior Analyst, Institutional Research and University Enrollment, Administration and Planning
• Larry Hedges, Professor, Statistics, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
• Jake Julia, Associate Provost of Academic Initiatives and Associate Vice President, Office of Change Management
• Peter Kaye, Assistant Dean for Undergraduate and Credit Programs, School of Continuing Studies
• Greg Light, Director, Searle Center for Teaching Excellence
• Susan Olson, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs, School of Education and Social Policy
• Penelope Peterson, Dean, School of Education and Social Policy
• H. David Smith, Senior Lecturer, Psychology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences