Six-Year Retrospective Summary of Assessment at WSU
The purpose of this report is to describe and summarize WSU's achievements in assessment during the last six years. The report describes current assessment activities that are in progress, forces affecting the assessment process, what has changed over the past six years, salient themes emerging from assessment results, the alumni responses to the 14 common survey items, changes in student learning resulting from assessment, areas still needing attention, and areas that were not originally assessed but that are now included.
Assessment at WSU is intended to support the University's mission and goals, particularly for teaching. The Strategic Plan for WSU states the University's main goals and the action strategies for achieving those goals. One of the main goals for WSU is enriched learning, which is described in the paragraph below, and assessment data is used to determine how well this goal is being achieved.
"Students who graduate from WSU with a baccalaureate degree will receive a liberal education along with specialized emphases provided by their majors. They will be able to express themselves both orally and in writing, think critically, and possess strong quantitative skills and computer literacy. They will have benefited from a personalized educational environment like that associated with private colleges along with the opportunities provided by a major research university."
Assessment is referred to a number of times in WSU's strategic planning document, indicating the role of assessment for various activities. Budget policies, for instance, are informed by assessment data that will support the allocation of new resources to areas of enrollment growth, and reallocation to areas of declining enrollment. Academic departments are expected to continually reevaluate and modify their disciplinary curricula to meet the needs of the state and society, and assessment plays a key role in this process.
Assessment is prominent in WSU's planning, budgeting, and development efforts. In "A Statement of Intentions for Washington State University" the University's number one goal is to "provide strong undergraduate programs". Key subgoals of this main goal refer frequently to evaluating and improving undergraduate programs, and evaluating and enhancing teaching capabilities and performance. A priority University level strategy for achieving this goal states that WSU will "continue to develop and implement a comprehensive program for the assessment of student outcomes." Strategies to accomplish this objective include the following: (1) working closely with interested faculty members and departments; (2) designing an evaluation program which will provide a means for institutional improvement and meet the state's need for accountability; (3) includes at a minimum the components specified by the Higher Education Coordinating Board; (4) secure necessary funding for assessment; and (5) use assessment findings to identify needed curricular changes.
