Introduction

Minutes

Members

Attendance: Brent Jameson, Chairperson; Judy Boschult, Kristin Anderson, Georgia Gudykunst, Maria Enciso, Betsy Frank, Kory Merkel.

DSAAC Meeting.
At the last meeting of DSAAC (District Student Academic Achievement Committee) on Nov. 17, we reviewed several topics: the 10 colleges' report to the board, a possible mandatory assessment day and a possible DSAAC afternoon activity at the January Convocation. Brent Jameson and Georgia Gudykunst attended the meeting.

Each college needs to get a sign-off from their deans on their respective assessment reports for the board, and send into the DSAAC chair, as soon as possible before Dec. 8. Jeanne Canham will draft a cover sheet that will go on top of the 10 colleges' reports. We can use unifying themes, for example, each campus has its own faculty-driven assessment plan, each campus is making progress, and so forth.

There was discussion on the pros and cons of asking district to add on another day of Faculty account-ability in order to have a district-wide assessment day. Since this would take considerable dollars, the group asked Margaret Hogan to get an estimate. Second, not all colleges can do assessment work on a specified day, depending on their assessment cycles, campus initiatives, nature of the measures, etc. For the group to get consensus, assessment-related work would need to be acceptable as well, such as training on measures such as rubrics.

Does DSAAC want to provide an assessment workshop or activity at the January Convocation? The group decided to forgo an assessment activity for Convocation, and focus instead on preparing college presentations on assessment for the Feb. 13 Governing Board session.

Writing Committee and Numeracy Committee Updates.
Betsy Frank hopes to get 6 - 8 sets of in-class writing samples, if all instructors provide these, as indicated. Kory has received several samples thus far.

Lessons Being Learned.
We discussed that the Steering Team needs to get the information out on assessment ASAP before or by the beginning of the semester, along with the training at the beginning of the semester. Faculty prepare their syllabi during the week of accountability and/or before their first class meets. We need to discuss how we might get the word out to faculty, prior to the start of each semester. People are willing but they get busy with their classes. Others are willing but are not sure of how to develop an assignment to meet the rubric guidelines. We need to communicate better, more broadly and regularly, and also provide help or tips on how to develop assignments to meet the rubric guidelines.

On Assessment Day, December 1, we need to engage in some of that conversation on how to develop assignments that would address general skills identified, for example, in the Numeracy rubric or the writing rubric. This would be part of the debriefing on the rating session and lessons learned, and as part of identifying our next steps.

We need to find a stronger role for the Liaisons to communicate about and participate in assessment- related activities. We need to encourage the "Liaison plus One" concept - to the departments for Assessment Day. Perhaps we need to encourage this more generally for getting student samples as well.

We need Marian Tadano's note (email) to everyone, encouraging participation, and who will be participating on which outcome committee. Several staff have expressed an interest to help.

We also need to develop a better-integrated approach to the assessment process, across outcome committees and areas. We need a better plan for getting at outcomes across disciplines, and sample broadly, and enabling us to move beyond a pilot. Also, we need to build in a sequence or strategy for which courses to sample and when each year. The matrix activity would help us with this.

In the spirit of optimism and teamwork, several members of the Steering Team have volunteered to develop some student samples for different outcome areas for the next round. Kory Merkel has volunteered to submit student work samples for Team-building. Judy Boschult and Georgia Gudykunst have volunteered to develop numeracy assignments in their courses.

Plans for Next General Assessment Committee Meeting on Nov. 13.
We will focus on the December 1 assessment day expectations (protocol, train, rate student work samples, debrief and then talk about developing assignments for the Numeracy rubric, or writing rubric, etc.). Also, we can dialogue about the roles that liaisons and other faculty can take on to facilitate assessment day and get some input from the liaisons and other faculty. Also, what are some additional ways to increase our communications and broader participation in assessment? We can ask them to help plan some next steps and strategies.

Respectively submitted,

Georgia Gudykunst