History of Assessment - Truman State University

History of Truman's Assessment Program

To read an extended history, visit Chapter II of the Assessment Almanac.

1973-1983

Assessment began at Truman (then known as Northeast Missouri State University) during the 1972-73 academic year when President McClain invited graduating students to sit for comparative (senior) exams. Beginning in 1974, all graduating seniors sat for a senior exam in the major. The various majors used a variety of senior exams, administering nationally normed instruments whenever possible. A few majors developed local exams.

Value-added (pre-test/post-test) assessment in general education began in 1975 using the Sequential Test of Educational Progress (STEP) to assess incoming freshmen. In spring 1977, the University re-tested these students with the same exam to determine gains in student learning. Later, the ACT exam (taken as first-year students and sophomores) took the place of STEP. In the early 80's, the University began using the College Outcomes Measurement Project (COMP), which was later replaced by the Academic Profile (AP).

In addition, Northeast began to collect attitudinal data using local instruments and adapting existing ones. These tests evaluated the University's effect on the student's progress and personal experiences. More detailed information about this period of assessment can be found in the 1984 North Central Nontraditional Self-Study and In Pursuit of Degrees with Integrity.

1984-1989

In Pursuit of Degrees with Integrity: A Value Added Approach to Undergraduate Assessment was published by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in 1984 after Northeast won the G. Theodore Mitau Award for Innovation and Excellence. This book outlines Northeast's commitment to be accountable to its students and the public by assessing student performance and fostering improvement in student learning outcomes.

In 1984, the University expanded the program to include a variety of qualitative measures. Faculty were particularly interested in developing qualitative assessments for classroom practice, higher-order thinking skills and writing ability.

The Sophomore Writing Experience (SWE) evolved from a prior writing assessment that began in 1979 and from a 1984 mandate from Undergraduate Council making writing assessment a graduation requirement for all students.

In 1985, the Missouri state legislature designated Northeast as the state's public liberal arts and sciences institution. As a result, the University reduced its undergraduate degree programs from 100 in 1985 to a low of 39 in 1993, concentrating resources on those programs that were fundamental to the new mission. At the same time, Northeast raised its admissions standards to "highly selective" and lowered the 21:1 student-to-faculty ratio to 16:1. To evaluate the impact of this new mission, the University continued to use the senior exams, value-added tests and attitudinal surveys, and change and update instruments as necessary.

In response to initiatives outlined in the Five-Year Planning Document, the University initiated portfolio assessment in 1988, expecting students to benefit from a retrospective look at their progress. The University envisioned several goals, including longitudinal assessment of the individual student's growth and development of higher-order thinking skills.

1990-1999

The Advisory Committee for Assessment designed and implemented an interview project for juniors in 1992-93 to gather information beyond that gathered by the institutional surveys.

The University began using the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP). The University divided each freshman class and administered the COMP to one half and the CAAP to the other half of the class as a pre-test. In the 1993-94 school year, the University shifted timing of the post-test, re-administering it after the completion of 60 semester hours. In particular, the University enhanced its early emphasis on multiple measures by including qualitative measures and encouraging self-assessment.

At this time, the assessment program gathered data from each of the approximately 6000 students on campus every year. The data were used at the institutional and divisional level, but the University intended for them to be useful to the individual student as well. The price paid for the information is more effort on the part of the faculty. This accelerated effort required the involvement of more individual faculty, which resulted in a higher number of faculty who have firsthand knowledge about who uses assessment data. The annual participation of 12 faculty members in the interview project, of 50 to 70 faculty members in the SWE, and over 50 faculty members in the portfolio project, increased and improved the use of assessment results to inform and improve classroom practice.

2000-Present

Recently, Truman's assessment program has seen some changes. In 2000, the freshman portion of the general education value-added CAAP and Academic Profile testing was suspended. Juniors still take the exams.

The College Student Experience Questionnaire (CSEQ) replaced the Institutional Student Survey (ISS). The CSEQ is better suited to Truman's mission than the ISS was. The CSEQ is administered the junior year.

In the spring of 2002, the Sophomore Writing Experience was discontinued in order to speed the development of a new writing assessment suited to the changing needs of the University and its student body. The interim writing assessment policy requires students to provide their Junior Interdisciplinary Seminar (JINS) instructors with a paper they feel best represents their writing abilities. The students will then be asked to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and goals as writers as part of the interim writing assessment program. Instructors will be encouraged to then address the unique writing strengths, weaknesses, and goals of each student when providing feedback on written assignments. At the end of each semester, student goals sheets will be collected and then compiled for University assessment purposes. The University intends to pilot the permanent writing assessment program during the Summer 2004 semester and fully implement it in Fall 2004.

Truman continues to renew its commitment to quality education by constantly evaluating and evolving its assessment program.