Six-Year Retrospective Summary of Assessment
at
Washington State University
Fall 1996
Submitted To:
Dr. Kathe Taylor
Higher Education Coordinating Board
Prepared by:
John Tarnai
Assessment Coordinator
Washington State University
Pullman, WA 99164-4014
email: tarnai@wsu.edu
Tel: (509) 335-1511
Fax: (509) 335-0116
November, 1996
Acknowledgments
At Washington State University, assessment is viewed and administered as a responsibility shared among all academic departments and units concerned with the education mission of the university. Responsibilities for implementing assessment activities are distributed among the various academic and administrative units of the University. WSU's Writing Program is responsible for the writing placement examination and the writing portfolio. The Office of Student Affairs Research is responsible for administering and preparing reports on the CIRP Freshman survey, the Former Student Survey, and the Annual Survey of Recent Alumni. The Residence Life Office is responsible for the CSEQ survey of first year freshmen students. Admissions data is maintained by the Office of Institutional Research. The Math Placement Examination is managed by the Department of Mathematics. Program Reviews are managed by the Provost's Office. The Quantitative Skills examination and the evaluation of General Education are implemented by the assessment office. End-of-program assessment plans are implemented by the academic departments with undergraduate degree programs. The survey of employers and information on employer contacts are managed by the assessment office. The assessment office is also responsible for coordinating and reporting our assessment activities and for representing WSU at the statewide collaborative assessment activities and meetings.
Over the past six years a number of individuals have been very actively involved in the assessment effort at WSU, including the following faculty: Don Bushaw, George Bettas, Gary Brown, Geoff Gamble, Rich Haswell, Richard Law, Randy Jorgenson, Susan McLeod, Jim Rimpau, Susan Wyche, Bill Webb. The staff of the Student Affairs Research Center, and Lisa Haggerty in particular, have been responsible for many assessment activities and reports. There have been several research assistants over the past six years who have worked on assessment activities, including: Nancy Ahson, Ann McGuigan, Kendal Broad, John Briney, Teresa Wertsch, and Dan Bartels.
In addition, over the past four years there has been an Assessment Review Committee, that has met regularly, with responsibility for systematically converting the results of outcomes assessment into recommendations for programmatic change, and for decisions related to the allocation of resources. The committee is chaired by the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs (currently Karen DePauw), and is responsible for three functions: (1) to review specific results of outcome assessments; (2) to monitor the operation of the entire WSU assessment program; and (3) to make recommendations to the Provost that are based on the results of the first two activities above. Faculty members serving on this committee include: George Bettas, Ron Brosemer, Steve Burkette, Charlene Clark, Bill Condon, Alan Genz, Al Jamison, Richard Law, Janet Kendall, Jim Rimpau, Mary Wack, and Paul Wong.
