The UAS Chancellor’s Assessment Initiative

The Assessment Initiative provides guidelines to assist degree coordinators and faculty members in designing program assessment plans. According to NWCCU’s Standard 2a: Educational Program and Its Effectiveness, “the achievement and maintenance of high quality programs is the primary responsibility of an accredited institution; hence, the evaluation of educational programs and their continuous improvement is an ongoing responsibility. As conditions and needs change, the institution continually redefines for itself the elements that result in educational programs of high quality.”Through this process, all academic departments should strive to achieve the following outcomes for UAS students and their programs:

• Clear, intentional, and measurable student learning outcomes;
• A student learning assessment plan that regularly assesses achievement of learning outcomes that are important to student success in the program
• A process for using the results of the student learning assessments in program planning and management; and
• A process for communicating the results of student learning assessment.

Departmental/Program Responsibilities

Each academic unit is expected to create a sustainable process that achieves the outcomes for student learning assessment stated above, in the UAS Chancellor’s Assessment Initiative. In order to provide systematic support for this effort, departments and programs are asked to participate in the following activities, in keeping with the attached timeline:

• Program heads collaborate with their Academic Dean and Provost to meet and prepare key assessment items and evidence, according to the attached timeline;
• Create a departmental-wide conversation to generate an assessment plan to link student work to achieving program outcomes; and
• Carry out student learning assessment activities in a manner that generates data useful for program management, program review, and accreditation.

Implementation Support

The following individuals are available to assist you with this project:

• Vice Provost, James Everett, 796-6421
• Dean of Education, Larry Harris 796-6557
• Dean of Arts and Sciences, Patrick Brown, 796-6531
• Dean of Business and Career Education, Karen Schmitt, 796-6369
• Director, Institutional Research, Pat Moore, 796-6231
• Assistant to the Provost, Maria Moya, 796-6148

Work Cited
Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. "Standard 2a: Education and its Effectiveness." 2005.