2019 IUPUI Assessment Institute – Keynotes

I attended the Assessment Institute at IUPUI in Indianapolis on Oct. 14-15, 2019.  According to its website, the Assessment Institute is the oldest and largest assessment conference, with over a thousand attendees and 400 institutions.  I previously attended the Institute in 2017, and it was great to learn about new information and to reconnect with assessment friends.

Many presentations at this year’s conference emphasized two recurring ideas:

• Equity and Excellence.  Speakers at several sessions I attended emphasized that assessment data should be dis-aggregated to help faculty and administrators understand how students of all demographics are performing.
• Focus on Learning, not Data.  Many assessment offices are now more clearly connected to Academics (rather than to Institutional Research), and this has created the need to explain assessment data in terms of student learning.  Speakers at several sessions I attended recommended that assessment data be translated for faculty.

Keynote: Herman J. Felton, Jr.

Herman Felton is the president of Wiley College and a previous president of Wilberforce University.  Dr. Felton gave an opening keynote address, and he took questions from a panel that included Natasha Jankowski (from NILOA), Tia Brown McNair (from AACU), and Stephen Hundley (from IUPUI).  You can follow Dr. Felton’s Twitter account here.

Dr. Felton began with the story of his educational background and of his dyslexia, and he stated that all of the predictive data would have shown low chances for his success.  However, he overcame the odds through grit, resilience, and tenacity.  On the basis of this experience, he urged assessment experts to be careful in how they present data because data can change our perceptions of the truth, and they can create inaccurate predictions and cause harmful consequences when they are led by motive or not based on a broad range of contextual information.

After the keynote, the panel talked about the importance of assessment.  In a response to one of the questions, Dr. Felton argued that an assessment administrator be not only responsible with the assessment data but also be at the leadership table.  In another response, Dr. Felton also argued that assessment needs to be an institutional priority; this can be reinforced by hiring assessment experts and by rewarding assessment work.  Additionally, assessment data should measure important issues, and leaders need to be ready to take action in response to data.  In other words, assessment should be “set up in preparation for action,” and not only to check the box.

Keynote for Diversity & Equity

At this year’s conference, the Assessment Institute added a new track for “Diversity & Equity,” and this topic took a central focus throughout the conference.  The keynote speaker for the track was Tia Brown McNair of AACU.  Her overall arguments were that the assessment process should be used to provide data about equity, and that there is no excellence without equity.  She also encouraged educators to avoid a “deficit mindset” (which critiques students for “not being prepared for college”) and instead to adopt a “growth mindset” (which looks for ways to encourage student learning).

Overall, this session was very influential for me, and it provided one of the biggest take-aways of the whole conference.  Because of this topic, I have started to think of ways I can encourage faculty and assessment coordinators to dis-aggregate data and examine student success in more focused ways.  My school already reports some dis-aggregated data about full-time vs. part-time students, native vs. transfer, and also on the basis of gender, racial demographic, and Pell-eligible status because these are required as part of IPEDS reporting, but I have been inspired to help faculty dis-aggregate data within academic programs and large gateway courses – and I hope to provide some of those examples here in the near future.

Equity Panel:  Why Equity Must Be at the Heart of Assessment

Another panel session on equity also spoke about the importance of equity in assessment.  The most insightful part of the discussion was the background on the meaning of “assessment.”  Originally, the Latin root for “assessment” meant to “sit beside” another person.  This concept suggests that “assessment” was a collaborative act.  However, “assessment” eventually came to signify a “judgment of worth” because “assessment” became associated with taxes; hence, today, the county or city sends an expert to conduct a “tax assessment” on your property.

This discussion resonated with me emotionally because I often to have to defend my work (as an assessment administrator) by portraying myself as a collaborator who helps faculty find meaningful data that can inspire growth.  And this truly is my goal because, at the course-level and outcomes-level, assessment data is not about passing judgment on a program but about understanding student learning and finding opportunities to help them succeed.

 

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