June 26th to 28th saw the convergence of Student Affairs folks at the ACPA Assessment Institute hosted in Costa Mesa, California. For those that have not been, the ACPA Assessment Institute is a professional development opportunity for all levels of assessment experience and roles. Attendees roles and responsibilities ranged from Entry level in specific functional areas to full time assessment roles. The institute offered three tracks customized to level of assessment experience: Foundations – an introduction to assessment best practices, Practitioner – expanding assessment knowledge for those with some experience who might be trying to learn more or scale their assessment cultures on their campus, and Administrators Track – focusing on equity centered strategies to influence change management on your campus as a student affairs leader. The Institute was led by a volunteer Faculty, working in assessment roles, imparting their experiences and best practices advice.
The Institute had two keynotes that focused on equity in assessment. Dr. Terah J. Stewart’s powerful presentation challenged the participants to move beyond the much-needed head and heart work of racial justice and decolonization. This thought provoking keynote was a call to action for thinking about how much conversation and energy goes into talking about Justice and Equity work with little follow through or resources to actually accomplish this work. Dr. Stwart framed the importance of reconciling personal history, taking active risk that needs to be taken, and giving the attention that needs to be paid to where revenue is directed and is integral to any action that needs to be undertaken. We were tasked with thinking about how we can move our campuses and our own work past barriers to the work while also naming the risk that we are willing to take.
The second keynote, Dr. Brandon Harris, presented the C.L.E.A.R. model of assessment. This model considers the elements of Culture, Learning, Equity, Achievability, and Responsiveness to assessment practices. Using each area as a test to evaluate one’s assessment approach can help to identify areas to increase equity and justice in our assessment practices.
While not everyone is able to attend these learning opportunities, it is a good reminder that assessment is a community practice. The exchanging of ideas, conversations, and sharing meals with other assessment folks has reenergized me in my own assessment practice! For those that did make it to the ACPA Assessment Institute, I hope that you stay connected with those you’ve met and tighten your network. For those that were not able to attend, I challenge you, if you are not already, to connect or reconnect with your assessment colleagues within and beyond your own institution to share what you’re working on, ask each other questions you’ve been thinking about, or just to check-in on each other and see how you/they are doing!!
Kyle Amore
Associate Director of Co-curricular Assessment
Santa Clara University
NASPA’s Conferences on Student Success in Higher Education (SSHE) took place in Anaheim, CA between June 23-25. Attendees have the opportunity to attend not one, but three conferences in one: Assessment, Planning, and Data Analytics Conference, First-generation Student Success Conference, and the Dismantling Systemic Barriers to Student Success Conference. ACPA’s Student Affairs Assessment Institute is a curriculum-based program designed to train new and seasoned Student Affairs Professionals in the assessment field. In parallel, NASPA SSHE provides assessment professionals a platform to present, share, and discuss their innovative approaches to assessment.
This was my first time attending NASPA SSHE and I left feeling inspired and more invigorated to do this important work. While I had many favorite sessions, the one that inspired me the most was the presentation Using Focus Group Research Participant Pools to Support Student Affairs Assessment by Chrisse Edmunds and Erica Regan of The Ohio State University and Lisa Rizzo of California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo.
These assessment professionals have created research participant pools of undergraduate and graduate students who have already expressed an interest in giving feedback. When they receive a project request from the campus partners, students in the pool are notified to participate if they want and/or meet any eligibility criteria (e.g. have to be a transfer student, graduate student, first-generation student, etc.). Cal Poly uses Handshake to advertise this opportunity to students while Ohio State recruits students via student involvement fairs, flyers posted around campus, classroom visits, and a variety of other student-directed advertisements. All three of the presenters shared that it can take some time to get a program like this off the ground and that it's important for one staff member to own it. Additionally, it's important to set policies on how to maintain the focus group pool. For instance, the professionals from Ohio State had to create a process to remove students who had graduated from the pool and to remove students who hadn’t been enrolled in two subsequent semesters.
While it may take some time to get a program like this off the ground, the benefits most likely outweigh those obstacles. The presenters spoke about how their campuses were able to use their pool to obtain student feedback on events and issues happening on their campuses in real-time. Furthermore, as their pools have grown, they’ve also been able to use their pools to enlist student participants for some surveys on their campus.
Let’s be honest with ourselves, finding and recruiting students to participate in focus groups can feel daunting and be quite frustrating. Even though we know focus group data can provide compelling student narratives and the story behind the numbers, the hurdles and resources needed to get students to show up and participate in a focus group can be a deterrent to many offices. Finding ways to ease these challenges and encourage more of this type of data collection has been top of mind for me and I’m excited to see how I can implement focus group pools on my campus in the future.
I encourage everyone to check their programs!
Buckeye Insights at Ohio State
It was also great to meet other SAAL members and connect with SA Assessment Pros from all across the country. This happy hour felt even more rewarding and meaningful because I was able to connect with other Qualtrics campus users. As the office I work in transitions to Qualtrics for our survey platform, it was great to learn some new quick tips and tricks while attending this conference. I’m always grateful to members of SAAL and to connect with so many amazing assessment colleagues who are willing to share such valuable insights. Check out the photo below!
Paul Holliday-Millard
Senior Research Associate, Assessment & Qualitative Research
University of North Carolina - Charlotte