Focused Report

Comprehensive Standard 3.3.1

The institution identifies expected outcomes for its educational programs (including student learning outcomes for educational programs ) and its administrative and educational support services, assesses whether it achieves these outcomes, and provides evidence of improvement based on analysis of those results. (Institutional effectiveness)

Off-Site Committee Finding

The institution identifies expected outcomes for its academic and educational support units and considers assessing expected outcomes as one of the cornerstones of its planning and institutional effectiveness processes. The planning and evaluation of the educational activities of the University are performed systematically and are intended to assess whether it achieves its mission and provides evidence of improvement based on data-driven analysis of those results.

The university's effectiveness process continues to evolve in order to meet the challenges of providing valuable objective data with which to evaluate the quality of its educational and administrative services. These efforts are also strengthened by the institution's compliance with Board-mandated policies regarding the establishment of strategic planning process through which the system institution's mission and goals are evaluated and evidence of improvement documented.

The Committee reviewed documentation supporting that the Comprehensive Program Reviews dating back to 2002 shows that assessment of academic programs directly shapes planning and evaluation for its educational programs. Therefore, the Committee concluded that the institution identified expected outcomes for its educational programs, assessed achievement of those outcomes, and provided evidence of improvement based on analysis of those results.

In 2005-06, the institution enacted a new system-wide unit-based assessment process based on Nichol's five-column reporting format, which requires all academic and non-academic units to submit and report assessment results annually. This new assessment process provides valuable and objective data to be used for making improvements to programs that are not covered by Board-mandated program reviews.

Two examples of the Nichol's five-column reporting format were reviewed by the Committee. They were 2005-2006 Assessments for the Masters in Nursing and Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. No other completed Nichol's five-column reports were located within the documentation provided the Committee. Consequently, the Committee could not locate an appropriate number of completed assessment documents to determine overall institutional compliance with the recently enacted system-wide unit-based assessment process. Therefore, the committee could not establish that the institution's nonacademic and support units have established outcomes, achieved these outcomes, and provided evidence of improvement based on analysis of those results. The On-Site Committee should seek evidence that administrative and educational support services have completed Nichol's five - column reports per the institution's assessment program adopted in 2005-06.

Albany State University's Response

In this focused report, the university provides an appropriate number of completed assessment reports to determine overall institutional compliance with the recently enacted system-wide unit-based assessment process implemented in academic year 2005-2006. Included in these reports are the Institution's academic programs and administrative units' goals, expected outcomes, means of assessment, results of assessment and use of results. For ease of presentation, the academic year 2005-2006 assessment reports are presented in the Nichols five-column reporting format, indicating how expected outcomes were achieved and evidence of improvement based on analysis of those results [1] [2] .

Supporting Documentation

[1] Academic Programs : Academic Year 2005-2006

[2] Administrative Units : Academic Year 2005-2006