Introduction

Minutes

Members

Assessment Committee Minutes
Date: September 23, 1999

1:30 pm Fannin Library Multipurpose Room

Committee members who were present: Judy Haberman, Marsha Hopkins, Marian Gibney, Mary Ruzycki, Brent Jameson, Yi Qin, Edlyn Soderman,Georgia Gudykunst, Betsh Frank

Chairman Jameson having distributed the minutes, called the meeting to order. The agenda included six items which appear as headings within the body of these minutes.
1. Minutes 9/9
There was one correction to the minutes of September 9. The statement ". . . chairs of assessment committees" was removed. The sentence now reads:

"Those who should attend (the October 6 workshop) are: department liaisons and department chairs."
2. Letter from NCA (handout)

Dr. Pepicello received this letter from NCA on September 7, 1999. Before discussing the contents of this letter, Chairman Jameson briefly explained the history of PC's assessment efforts and the circumstances that led to the receipt of this letter. About one year ago, Dean Tadano requested an extension to the progress report requested by NCA. NCA had asked for a progress report on the implementation of the college plan for the assessment of student academic achievement. The college believed that it had an extension of this progress report until Spring of 2000. Dr. Pepicello further reinforced the efforts of PC to achieve the goal of reporting on assessment of academic achievement in a letter written to NCA on May 1, 1999. However, the letter received on September 7, 1999 clearly states that Phoenix College has until January 31, 2000 to complete the first progress report. NCA has stipulated that this report contain "the redesigned Assessment Plan and preliminary results of assessment measures for General Education, ESL, Occupational and Developmental programs." The second and third progress report dates are also included in the letter.

This news has changed the timeline presented at the last meeting. The progress report will include last year's activities. The focus of assessment reporting will be on organizing current activities.
3. Cindy Lynch workshop-October 6, 1-4 (handout)
The date for the workship has changed to October 6th. Dean Tadano has written a tentative plan of action for the activities for the workshop. It was suggested that this handout be given to workshop participants before October 6 so that attendees could begin thinking of how to respond.
4. Update on Assessment Dialogue at MCC (Dr. Gudykunst)

Dr. Gudykunst reported on this day of assessment dialogue, sharing, and discussion. Major themes of the dialogue were faculty ownership, student
outcomes and learning, implementation, and how to incorporate these issues back
to faculty, curriculum and classroom activities. The issue of faculty release
time arose as well as a proposal for establishing benchmarks with which faculty
could use to benchmark. There were differing perspectives on these issues.
5. Board presentation on assessment-October 12

The governing board wishes to learn more about assessment and the process of assessment. They have requested that presentations be made to them to enable them to understand the assessment process more thoroughly. Each campus will prepare a hands on, application-type of activity and present it to the board. Each activity will be brief, approximately 10 minutes. Dr. Qin suggested that the board members go through the prioritization activity that was used by Phoenix College last semester. This activity enabled PC to identify the most important outcome areas (writing and numeracy) and helped to establish our direction.
6. Formation of committees on "writing" and "numeracy"

The subcommittees on writing and numeracy have the following members:

Writing subcommittee: Ms. Eygendaal, Ms. Soderman, Ms. Anderson, Ms. Hopkins, Dr. Eroe, Ms. Schweigert

Numeracy subcommittee: Dr. Qin, Ms. Haberman, Ms. Frank, Dr. Gibney, Mr. Gorman, Ms. Ruzycki

The meeting adjourned @3:00 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Betsy Frank