CIHE Assessment Forum 2008

8:00-8:30 a.m.

Coffee Break
 

8:30-1000 a.m.

8:30-10:30 a.m.

CIHE Workshop: Using Standardized Measures of Student Development and Achievement
Moderator: Robert Froh, Associate Director, CIHE

Workshop Leaders: Charles Blaich, Director of Inquiry, Wabash Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN; Steve Weisler, Dean of Academic Development and Professor, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

As a result of much excellent assessment work being carried out at institutions across the country, faculty, administrators, and staff frequently find themselves awash with data and other institutional research that has the potential to significantly improve teaching and learning. This session focuses on the skills and practices necessary to interpret complex datasets and to develop plans for improvement that are supported by assessment data. The presenters will lead a working session in which participants will have the opportunity to interpret reports from a range of standard assessment instruments from the Wabash National Study and will work in teams to develop action plans based on data. The session will also discuss logistic, rhetorical, and strategic elements of successful campus planning initiatives that are underpinned by assessment data and institutional research. The discussion will also address effective implementation of standardized measures such as the CAAP, NSSE, and CLA.

Blaich and Weisler Presentation
Handouts: Blaich Northeast College Session Questions, Blaich Northeast College Factsheet, Blaich Northeast College Good Practices, Blaich Northeast College Good Practices Scales, Blaich Northeast College NSSE Scores, Blaich Action Plan Worksheet
 

10:30-11:45 a.m.

CIHE session: Fostering Student Success
Moderator: James Ortiz, CIHE Commissioner, President, Southern Maine Community College, South Portland, ME

Presenters: Morton Owen Schapiro, President, Williams College, Williamstown, MA; Thomas Dwyer, Executive Vice President, Johnson & Wales University, Providence, RI

This session will highlight what we do know, and don’t know, about how to promote student success. Topics include:  how to measure success, how success varies for different types of students attending different types of institutions, and whether there are best practices that can be widely employed. The presenters will provide examples from their colleges as well as comment on broader national trends and issues.

Dwyer Presentation
 

11:45-12:45 p.m.

CIHE Box Lunch Follow-up Discussion for “Fostering Student Success” with Morton Owen Schapiro, Thomas Dwyer, and James Ortiz
  

12:45-2:00 p.m.

CIHE session: Measuring Depth of Learning in the Humanities
Moderator: Bruce Mallory, CIHE Commissioner, Provost and Executive Vice President, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH

Presenters: Orin L. Grossman, Academic Vice President, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT; Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, President, Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT; David Scobey, Director, Harward Center for Community Partnerships, Bates College, Lewiston, ME

Faculty in the humanities disciplines find it more challenging to engage in assessment in ways similar to faculty in other disciplines. This session will address these challenges, suggest useful venues and structures, and provide examples of tools and methods for enabling faculty in the humanities to engage in assessment in ways they find most useful and appropriate.

Remarks by Orin Grossman
 

12:45-2:00 p.m.

CIHE session: Enabling Success in the First Year
Moderator: Gai Carpenter, CIHE Commissioner, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

Presenters: Christopher Fauske, Interim Dean, School of Arts and Sciences, Salem State College, Salem, MA; Lane Glenn, Vice President of Academic Affairs, Northern Essex Community College, Haverhill, MA

Student success has become a phrase much used in discussion of institutions of higher educations’ quality and, more recently, student outcomes. However, there has been very little discussion of what exactly “student success” is. In this presentation, a “four year” state college and “two year” community college explore the challenges of using traditional measures such as graduation and retention rates to track student success. They will share alternative approaches to measuring student success at the institutional level, and provide examples of how these measurements have enabled success for first year students. 

Fauske Presentation
Glenn Prsentation
 

CIHE session: Using Mixed Methods and Longitudinal Studies to Assess Student Learning
Moderator: Jill Reich, CIHE Commissioner, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, Bates College, Lewiston, ME

Presenters: Lee Cuba, Professor of Sociology, Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA; Nancy E. Jennings, Associate Professor of Education, and Suzanne B. Lovett, Associate Professor and Chair, Psychology Department, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME

This session will discuss the research design and some initial findings from the New England Consortium on Assessment and Student Learning project, a longitudinal study using mixed methodologies that examines students’ transition to college, academic decision-making, and academic and social engagement and integration. We will briefly describe the project that is being carried out at seven institutions – Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury, Smith, Trinity and Wellesley Colleges – and how they have collaborated to collect and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data. By looking at some initial findings on academic and social engagement and students' perceptions of success, we will suggest how qualitative and quantitative methods can be used to inform one another and, when combined, can produce a more nuanced and insightful understanding of the college experience. The benefits of examining issues such as engagement and perceptions of success longitudinally, rather than cross-sectionally, will be discussed.

Cuba et al. Presentation
  

2:00-2:15 p.m.

2:15-3:30 p.m.

CIHE session: Using Externally and Internally Generated Assessment to Improve Student Learning
Moderator: Jill Reich, CIHE Commissioner, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty, Bates College, Lewiston, ME

Presenters: Deborah Grossman-Garber, Assistant Commissioner, Rhode Island Office of Higher Education, Cranston, RI; Michael Reder, Director, Joy Shechtman Mankoff Center for Teaching and Learning, Connecticut College, New London, CT 

All too frequently, institutional data about faculty teaching and student learning remains cloistered within the confines of the higher administration and an institutional research office, thereby diminishing the power of data to drive institutional transformation. How can you begin a campus-wide conversation about the data that you have? And, once that data has been distributed and discussed, how can an institution facilitate meaningful changes in teaching practices that improve student learning? This session will present recommended best practices for integrating externally generated data such as that from NSSE, FSSE, CIRP and the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education with internal institutional data in order to make the information both meaningful and actionable for the campus community at large. Presenters will highlight specific case studies from Connecticut College and the University of Rhode Island to discuss the challenges and opportunities for instituting data-driven, evidence-based mechanisms to improve student learning.

Grossman-Garber and Reder Presentation
Handouts: Reder Using Data, Reder Sources and Flow, Grossman-Garber Best Practices
 

2:15-3:30 p.m.

CIHE session: Assessing Curricular and Instructional Practices in General Education: Linking Evidence to Improvement
Moderator: James Leheny, CIHE Commissioner, Associate Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Presenters: Richard Vaz, Dean, Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division and Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA; Martha Stassen, Director of Assessment, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Among the challenges of assessing General Education is uncovering the instructional and curricular barriers to student learning and development. Evidence of pedagogical and curricular processes can be particularly informative in understanding how to support faculty development and improve student engagement. But such evidence is also a challenge to collect. In this session, presenters will provide examples of how they assess pedagogy and curricula and share ways this information is being used to support faculty and students.

Vaz Presentation
Stassen Presentation
 

CIHE session: Setting the Stage for Productive Measures of Learning
Moderator: Gai Carpenter, CIHE Commissioner, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

Presenters: David Finney, President, Champlain College, Burlington, VT; Marty Krauss, Provost, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; Emile Netzhammer, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Keene State College, Keene, NH

This session will address how three different types of institutions have progressed over time in their implementation of institution- and program-level assessment, and how they have enabled an investment in the effort on the part of faculty and staff. Presenters will discuss successes and the challenges in building a culture of inquiry and evidence on their respective campuses. The session will also address how these institutions have used accreditation as leverage to support good efforts.

Finney Presentation
Kraus Presentation
Handout: Netzhammer 
 

CIHE session: Working with Journalists in Addressing Student Success and Educational Effectiveness
Moderator: Peter Nessen, CIHE Commissioner, President, Nessen & Associates, Boston, MA

Presenters: Marcella Bombardieri, Reporter, The Boston Globe, MA; Doug Lederman, Editor, Inside Higher Education, Washington, D.C.

Discussants: Mary Fifield, former CIHE Commissioner, President, Bunker Hill Community College, Boston, MA; Kirk Kolenbrander, CIHE Commissioner, Vice President for Institute Affairs and Secretary of the Corporation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

This session will discuss how higher education works with journalists through examples of how different stories played out, and suggestions for how journalists and educators might do this more effectively.  Presenters will also address contrasting perspectives of what parents and students want in terms of information about student success.

Handout: Bombardieri Boston Globe Article
  

CIHE Reception 

Remarks by Elsa Nuñez, Commission Chairperson, President, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT
     

7:30 a.m.-8:00 p.m.

8:30-6:00 p.m.

CIHE session: Sustainability as a Measure of Institutional Effectiveness
Moderator: Mary Jo Maydew, CIHE Commissioner, Vice President for Finance and Administration, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA

Presenters: Theodora Kalikow, President, University of Maine at Farmington; David Hales, President, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME; Kathleen Schatzberg, President, Cape Cod Community College, West Barnstable, MA; Mitchell Thomashow, President, Unity College, Unity, ME 

This session will address how some of our colleges enable sustainability objectives in ways supported by the NEASC Standards for Accreditation. The presenters will provide examples of how various elements of sustainability (energy, food, materials, academic programs, governance, wellness, and investments) are enabled on their campuses. They will focus particularly on measuring how sustainability initiatives enable student learning and institutional effectiveness.
 

CIHE session: Institutional Research that Supports Faculty Investment in Assessment
Moderator: Julie Alig, Assistant Director, CIHE

Presenters: David England, Director of Institutional Effectiveness, and Stephen Ersinghaus, Associate Professor of English, Tunxis Community College, Farmington, CT; Cate Rowen, Director of Institutional Research and Educational Assessment, and Susan Etheredge, Associate Professor of Education and Child Study, Smith College, Northampton, MA

Faculty representatives on this panel will give an overview of the need on their respective campuses for assessment. They will lay out the current initiatives, and talk about the ways they've partnered with their institutional research offices to work on them. The institutional researchers will discuss the “core” projects that they're working on with faculty. This session will address specific strategies that have been  successfully employed on these campuses in an attempt to make assessment “non-threatening, non-burdensome and non-scary” to the average faculty member.

England and Ersinghaus Presentation
Rowen and Etheredge Presentation
 

Breakfast for Initial Schools (by invitation only)

Sponsored by ERB – Educational Records Bureau

CIHE session: Achieving the Dream: Enabling Higher Risk Students
Moderator: Doris Arrington, CIHE  Commissioner, Dean of Student Services, Capital Community College, Hartford, CT 

Presenters: Anita Gliniecki, President, Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport, CT; Terrence Gomes, President, Roxbury Community College, Roxbury Crossing, MA; Ira Rubenzahl, President, Springfield Technical Community College, Springfield, MA

The “Achieving the Dream” initiative has focused on community colleges using data analysis to strengthen both access to and through higher education. The presenters will address how this project has strengthened their campus efforts.

Gliniecki Presentation
Gomes Presentation
Rubenzahl Presentation
 

CIHE session: Aligning Program Assessment and Review with Institutional Planning
Moderator: James Leheny, CIHE Commissioner, Associate Chancellor, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Presenters: Dale Jaffe, Associate Provost and Professor of Sociology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT; Mark Putnam, Senior Vice President for Executive Affairs, Northeastern University, Boston, MA

When institutions get scheduled for periodic accreditation reviews, they often wish to use this as an opportunity to forward their strategic plans. Presenters will address how they have accomplished this at their respective institutions. They will particularly focus on leveraging accreditation to forward the alignment of institution and program planning and assessment efforts.

Jaffe Presentation
Putnam Presentation
  

CIHE session: The Cognitive Age
Moderator: Kathryn Spoehr, CIHE Commissioner, Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI

Presenters: Jamshed Bharucha, Provost and Senior Vice President, Tufts University, Medford, MA; Nancy Hoffman, Vice President, Jobs for the Future, Boston, MA; Sherwin Greenblatt, former President of Bose Corporation, Director of Venture Mentoring Services, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

This session will address how we need to modify the learning process to serve the needs of our society in terms of increased demand for higher level skills such as as learning-to-learn and problem solving. Presenters will focus on these needs through education and business perspectives, and will also address the challenges of working with underprepared students.

Hoffman Presentation
Handouts: Bharucha Times Higher Ed Article, Bharucha Future Forum Article, Bharucha Chronicle Article
 

CIHE Box Lunch Follow-Up Discussion for “The Cognitive Age” with Jamshed Bharucha, Richard Kazis, Sherwin Greenblatt, and Kathryn Spoehr 
 

Plenary Address

Speaker: Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian and Author, Three Cups of Tea

Charles W. Eliot Award Recipient for 2008 

Sponsored by TD Banknorth Higher Education Group

CIHE session: Becoming More Explicit About Student Success – What Colleges are Doing

Moderator: Stacy Sweeney, Group Vice President for Northeast Region of Art Institutes, Brookline, MA

Presenters: Barbara Brittingham, Director, CIHE; Gail E. Carberry, President, Quinsigamond Community College, Worcester, MA; Judith Hackman, Associate Dean, Yale College, New Haven, CT; Michelle Loris, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English and Psychology, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield, CT

Brittingham Presentation
Handouts: Student Achievement and Success Initiative, Resource Webliography
   

Commission Business Meeting
(The meeting is open to all conference attendees.)

Remarks by Commission Chairperson Elsa Nuñez
 
   

Banquet Meeting and Address

Speaker: Ruth J. Simmons, President, Brown University, Providence, RI
Simmons Address: "The Chance of a Century: Fulfilling the Public Trust in a Time of Crisis"

Presentation of the Richard J. Bradley Award
Michael Savage, Executive Director, CAS/CIAC

Sponsored by Sodexo

Continental Breakfast and Annual Business Meeting
   

CIHE session: Update on the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and the USDOE Rules and Regulations
Moderator: Elsa Nuñez, Commission Chairperson, President, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT

Presenters: Terry Hartle, Senior Vice President, Division of Government and Public Affairs, American Council on Education, Washington, D.C.; J.D. LaRock, Policy Director, Massachusetts Executive Office of Education, formerly Senior Education Advisor to United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy. 

This session will present different perspectives on the changes made in the Higher Education Act, as well as the process and likely timetable for its implementation by the Department of Education. Presenters will offer some ideas for how higher education can take the initiative to address societal pressures regarding accountability and transparency to the public.
 

CIHE session: Accountability for Learning at the International Level
Moderator: Debra Townsley, CIHE Commissioner, President, Nichols College, Dudley, MA

Presenter: Clifford Adelman, Senior Associate, Institute for Higher Education Policy, Washington, D.C.

Discussants: R. Bruce Hitchner, CIHE Commissioner, Professor of Classics and International Relations, Tufts University, Medford, MA; Bruce Mallory, CIHE Commissioner, Provost and Executive Vice President, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 

This session will address what we can learn about accountability from what European academic leaders, faculty, and students have accomplished through the Bologna process. This process addresses student learning outcomes through what are called "qualification frameworks" which establish public definitions of degrees and criterion-referenced statements of what a degree represents. This also includes the involvement of faculty within the disciplines through the “Tuning” process, a student-centered credit system, and a diploma supplement acting as a warrantee for the degree.

Adelman Presentation
Handouts: Adelman – Liberal Education Table of Contents, Adelman – Accountability Light
Remarks by Bruce Mallory
  

Luncheon Meeting and Address

Address by Linda Greenhouse, Pulitzer Prize Winning, former New York Times Supreme Court Journalist; author, Becoming Justice Blackmun
Greenhouse Address: Counting on Citizenship

Charles W. Eliot Award Recipient for 2008 - United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy (Senator Kennedy will not be present to accept the award)

 

Sponsored by TD Banknorth Higher Education Group