Assessing Administrative and Educational Support Services

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Assessing Administrative and Educational Support
Services

• Southwest Texas Junior CollegeAugust
  2006byMary Frances Gibbonsmgibbons_at_dcccd.edu

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First Decisions

• Institution must
• Determine which units are organizational and
  which units are instructional support
• Consider the participation of the outsourced
  services (bookstore, food services, janitorial
  services) Institution still responsible for
  these.
• Begin with a clear timeline for all groups

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Assessing Organizational and Instructional
Support Services

• Organizational services provide services that
  maintain the institution and are essential to its
  operations, but do not impact directly the
  institutions instructional programs.
  ExamplesAccounting Office, Office of the
  Registrar, Physical Plant Department, etc.

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Assessing Organizational and Instructional
Support Services

• Educational support services are those that,
  while not primarily instructional in nature,
  contribute directly to student learning or
  instruction.ExamplesAcademic Advising Center,
  Library, and Information Technology.Each focuses
  on services that relate directly to students and
  often are part of the institutions overall
  learning environment or process.

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Unit Assessments

• Units identify the services they wish to assess
  assessment may lead to improving processes
• Examples--Administrative and academic units
  will receive their monthly accounting reports
  during the first five business days of the
  month (Accounting Office)
• --Students will have their transcript requests
  filled in two business days (Admissions Office)

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Unit Assessments

• Unit assessment objectives describe what client
  will do after receiving the service
• Examples--Students will be able to use
  librarys reference services efficiently (to
  use three different databases correctly)
  (Library)
• --ESL students will be able to communicate
  easily with their reading tutors (Tutoring
  Center)

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Unit Assessment

• Follow a systematic process for assessing unit
  services
• Document both the process and the use of results
  for implementing change

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Unit Documentation Report

• May include1. Institutions mission statement
  and goals and the relationship of units
  role to these 2. Units service
  objectives3. Means of assessment and criteria
  for success for service assessed4. Summary
  of data collected from assessment5. Use of
  results

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Reasons Why Your Group Should Participate in
Assessment

• Satisfy regional accrediting agencies
• Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)As part of
  an overall process of improving services
• State Mandates
• Competition To attract students by providing
  better institutional services

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Suggested Steps for Assessing Your Services

• Formulating Unit Assessment Plan1. Establish
  linkage to institutions statement of
  purpose. Identify which portion of the
  Expanded Statement of Institutional Purpose
  (colleges mission statement and goals) your
  group supports.2. Establish your groups mission
  statement --List the services you provide
  --Identify the recipient of those services
• 3. Formulate organizational/instructional
  support objectives for your group4. Identify
  your groups means of assessment and
  criteria for success

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Suggested Steps for Assessing Your Processes,
contd.

• Moving from Planning to Implementation and Use of
  Results
• 5. Conduct assessment activities
• --Collect and analyze the results
• 6. Document and demonstrate use of results for
  service improvement

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Step 1Establish a Linkage to the Institutions
Statement of Purpose

• Identify which portion of the Expanded Statement
  of Institutional Purpose your unit supports

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Career Center (Example)

• Institutional Mission/Goal Reference(Goal 6)
  The College will continue to develop leadership
  and to instill in its students a sense of
  justice, moral courage, and tolerance for the
  views of othersimprove admissions, academic,
  career, and placement counseling.
• Unit Mission Statementto assist students in
  transition from academia to the world of work by
  preparing students for life after graduationThe
  Career Center offers services that include
  career counseling three classes for academic
  credit, workshops, and seminars on career-related
  subjects assistance with resume writing and
  interviewing and opportunities for part-time
  jobs, internships, and full-time jobs.

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Whats Found

• Institutional Missions Statements
• Most often these provide no place where
  organizational/educational support units canshow
  they support the purpose of the institution

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Step 2Establish a Unit Mission Statement

• Column 1
• Describe the services your unit provides and
  identify the recipients of those services (the
  clients for whom you provide these services).
• Evaluate this mission statement annually for
  appropriate changes.

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Preparing Unit Assessment Plans

• What is the Focus of the Assessment Effort?To
  Improve services

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Step 3Formulating Intended Organizational/Educat
ional Support Objectives/Outcomes

• Column 2
• Answers Question How does your unit know you
  are accomplishing your purpose and improving your
  services?

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The 2-3 Chosen Objectives are the Key to the
Assessment Plan

• Related to the Services the Unit provides
  (linkage to Unit Mission Statement)
• Focus of your Assessment Plans
• Statements indicate those areas for which you
  want more information
• Will lead to improvement of unit services
• Within control of unit

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Formulating Organizational/Instructional Support
Objectives

• Organizational and instructional support
  objectives
• Refer to
• Currently existing services
• Rather than
• Administrative Planning Activities Future
  Actions

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Step 4Means of Assessment and Criteria for
Success

• Column 3
• Answers QuestionsWhat will provide your unit
  with information concerning accomplishment of the
  objective? What level of success will be
  sought?

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Types of Attitudinal Assessment

• StandardizedNoel Levitz (institution can add
  questions appropriate to its mission and goals)
• Locally DevelopedAlumni surveys, graduating
  students, employers, points-of-contact surveys

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Primary and Secondary Criteria for Success in
Unit Assessment

• PrimaryThe minimum overall rating or score
  (response your unit would identify if your
  services are functioning as you feel they should)
• SecondaryThe minimum item or scale-score rating
  (response within the primary or overall measure
  below which your unit would want to investigate
  to determine how to improve services)

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Step 5 Analyze Results

• Review the results of your primary and secondary
  assessment means
• Analyze your assessment results to determine what
  you might want to change in your approach to
  achieve your goals
• Special note Include a second means of
  assessment only if it seems appropriate

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Step 6Assessment Report

• Document your results in your Assessment Report.
  
• RememberDocumentation is key! If you dont
  write it down, then it never happened.

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Implement Changes to Reflect Results

• Goalto improve, not to prove!
• Implement changes in your approach that address
  your assessment findings
• Assessment process requires annual evaluation