Introduction

Minutes

Members

Occupational Assessment Committee Meeting
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
3:00 PM

Those Present:

Kristin Anderson – Dental Programs, Sharon Halford – Associate Dean of Instruction, Kay Hilder – Interpreter Preparation, Diane Stark – Computer Information Systems, Marilyn Anderson – General Business, Kathy Green – Applied Business, Willie Jones – Applied Business, Terry Garrison - Fire Science, Rick Wilson – Justice Agencies Support, Deborah Dennis – Health Information Technology, Beverly Jenkins - Accounting

Sign In  - Committee members were asked to sign in and verify that their programs are accurately listed on the committee roster

Welcome and Introductions - Kristin Anderson, Occupational Assessment Chair,

opened the meeting.  Each participant introduced themselves.

Kristin demonstrated the features of the committee website which offers a valuable source of information to committee members:

www.pc.maricopa.edu/assessment

The site now contains many completed examples of matrices and tools being used to measure outcomes, as well as downloadable forms for those who are just getting started.  A slide presentation brought new members up to date on the history and progress of the committee, and provided a review for the other members. It was emphasized that the use of the matrices provides valuable self-assessment information for making important improvements in the programs.  It is also required by the Community College Board and the HLC – Higher Learning Commission (previously NCA) for accreditation.

The timeline for the upcoming HLC Self-Study is:

April, 2005 – a draft is due

October, 2005 - the self-study will be submitted

April, 2006 – Site visit

All the directors of every occupational program at Phoenix College are members of this committee with a steering committee of four members, Kristin Anderson, Kay Hilder, Diane Stark and Helen Houser.  It is a goal to have 100% compliance from all of the departments in meeting the assessment outcomes.

Outcome Statement #1 - The first Outcome Statement was accepted by the majority of program directors in October of 2000, and is now being utilized by each department. It states:

Occupational Programs at Phoenix College will prepare students for the workforce.

Yearly updates to your matrix should be made each summer or fall for the prior year.   You can download your matrix from the website, update it and then e-mail to Adriana Loera and Kristin Anderson for posting.  Kristin emphasized the importance of posting any changes made to your programs as a result of any assessment information collected.  This completes the feedback loop.

Outcome Statement #2  -  The second Outcome Statement was adopted by the steering committee in the Spring of 2003.  The statement reads:

Students in occupational programs at Phoenix College will exhibit professional behaviors.

The committee discussed ways that the rubric on Professional Behaviors was being used.  Some members feel that the second outcome statement is hard to work with because it is so subjective, and that many of the behaviors on the rubric did not apply to their students.  Kristin stated that the rubric can be customized so that it fits each program, and that not all of the behaviors need to be evaluated.  For example, not all programs have professional appearance requirements, but all programs can utilize behaviors such as class attendance.

Some department chairs have been using the rubric as a hand-out to students and faculty as a guide for expected behaviors, but have not yet started evaluating students with it.  Others are giving it to employers on extern sites for evaluating students working with them, and others have begun utilizing it for student self-assessment and team evaluations.

Associate Dean Halford commended the committee for the work that they have done on this project.  She said the information now contained in the website is utilized by the President.

General questions addressed were:

How many Outcome Statements will be created?

At this time, the committee intends to utilize only these two statements.  Additional statements could be added in the future if needed, but it is preferable to keep the process workable by effectively utilizing what we now have.

Will we still be doing this in 10 years?

It is expected that assessment processes will be a permanent function of each department.

Adjournment – The meeting adjourned at 4:00 PM.