Assessment Report Basics

What are Assessment Plans and Assessment Reports, and how are they different from each other?  Both Assessment Plans and Assessment Reports describe how Student Learning Outcomes are assessed, but the two documents provide different information, and they are written at different times in the assessment process.  In this two-part blog post, I will describe the basic features of Assessment Plans and Assessment Reports.

The Assessment Report is historical document that provides student performance data and interpretive comments about whether students met the expected benchmark for the outcome.  The Assessment Report is written every year, and it typically includes the following sections:

Program Information.  The top of the Assessment Plan usually provides identifying information, such as the full name of the academic program, the academic department or college it belongs to, the name of the assessment coordinator or faculty member writing the assessment report, and the date of submission or academic year.

Outcome Being Assessed.  The Assessment Plan includes the outcomes that were assessed.  Programs usually have four to eight outcomes, and they usually assess two or three outcomes each year, though some programs may be required to assess every outcome every year.  The schedule of outcomes assessment is listed on the Assessment Plan.

Direct and Indirect Assessment Instruments.  Each outcome is assessed with several assessment “instruments,” which include direct assessments (such as essays, capstone projects, clinical observations, and exams) and indirect assessments (such as surveys).  The list of assessment instruments also usually provides information about that assessment, which may include a description of the type of assessment (exam, essay, capstone projects), what it measures, and how outcomes are assessed.  The description may also include a “target” or “benchmark,” which the cut-off score for measuring student success.

Student Performance Data or Results.  The Assessment Report provides results for each assessment instrument.  Results are usually aggregated, and they are usually presented as a percent or as a number of students who “met” the benchmark score.

Interpretative Remarks or Conclusions.  In addition to data, the Assessment Report also provides interpretive statements or comments about what the assessment data shows.  This is probably the most important section of the Assessment Report because it gives meaning to the scores.  The commentary provides context for the scores, and it demonstrates that instructors are aware of how student success strategies are affecting student learning.

Here are a few ways to provide commentary:

• Compare this year’s results to previous years:  “Students performed significantly better this year.”
• Compare one group of students to another (beginning to advanced students, majors to non-majors, male-female and other student demographics):  “Students who are majoring in the subject scored 5 pts higher than students who are taking the course as a Gen Ed elective.”
• Compare one course section to another:  “Students in evening sections scored lower than students in morning sections.”
• Compare your school to your peer group:  “NSSE results show that our students are feel confident in their ability to use technology than students at other private liberal arts colleges.”
• Evaluate how a program change or a previous improvement strategy may have affected assessment results:  “We believe that the dramatic increase in exam scores is due to the mandatory pre-exam review sessions we have implemented across the program.”

Action Plans for the Future.  One of the main reasons for assessing student learning is to provide data for decisions about how courses will be taught in the following semesters.  This section is especially important when the scores are low, and an “intervention” (a strategy for improvement) is needed.  In this section, instructors make recommendations for a student success strategy, including more tutoring, changing an assignment, additional review sessions, different reading material, more active learning strategies, etc.  Then, the next time this outcome is assessed, the instructor looks at the data to determine if the strategy worked.

Lirim Neziroski, Ph.D., MBA is an academic leader and an assessment and technology expert at a liberal arts university in the Chicago area. Contact Lirim directly for additional resources and speaking, consulting, and writing opportunities.