MAC Meeting Minutes May 2004

Missouri Assessment Consortium
Meeting notes - May 27, 2004

The meeting was held at the DHE annex. Steve LaNasa hosted. Dave Oehler served as historian. Attendees/participants: Delores Honey, Dianna Parker, Joe Lange, Mike Easter, Mike Grelle, Steve LaNasa, Janet Juhlin, Kandis Smith, Rick Mihalevich, Vicki Schwinke, Paula Glover, Beth Nolte, Nancy Asher, Mardy Eimers, Michael Cunningham, Robert Stein, Dave Oehler, Charles Van Middlesworth.

10:00 Welcome, agenda preview

10:05 Value added (CLA) Project & MAC involvement (RS)

The CBHE Board Book is available on the DHE website. There is information on the CLA project in the current board book. RAND is very interested in Missouri's participation in their national initiative on measuring value added student learning. RAND has agreed to put up $50K toward the cost of the pilot; the consortium negotiating team set as a target goal to raise at least $50K from its members, and grant money will be sought for the difference. Improvement (rather than accountability) will drive the pilot project. The design for the project will include two testing points at each participating institution: one for students at point of entry (approximately 100 students) and one at for students at point of exit (approximately 100 students.). Institutions in the consortium will have flexibility to adapt the project to their specific culture. The RAND staff will come to Missouri during the pilot project to help develop improvement reports and to assist in analysis based on (various) institutional needs. RAND has also agreed to work with Missouri to develop a concept paper that will be used to seek external funding. A gap analysis will be done to determine how much additional funding will be needed to complete a one-year pilot. If funding agencies are interested and willing to provide funding, the project, however, may become a multi-year project, rather than a single-year project.

Robert is drafting three separate letters that will invite institutions to contribute $2000 for participation in the pilot project. One letter will be sent to existing consortium members, one to public and independent institutions that initially chose not to participate and one to proprietary institutions. Each letter will explain the design of the project, a request for a financial commitment to participate and an indication that part of the project will be subsidized by external sources. Institutions that believe that the $2000 amount would cause hardship will be given the opportunity to petition the consortium for a reduced rate. No institution will be permitted to join for less than $1500. The Consortium hopes to raise a little more than $50,000 so it has slightly more than RAND is putting on the table for this project.

The question was raised as to whether the money could be paid from this fiscal year, or whether we would need to wait until next year. Robert will check on this.

Another observation was shared that comparisons across institutions may not be appropriate, due to input variables, methodologies for how the tests are administered, how institutions motivate students, etc. There was general agreement that the consortium should make clear the limitations of the pilot and ensure that inappropriate comparisons are not made from the data generated.

On a separate topic, campus-based academic program reviews, Robert indicated that he had shared a draft statement from a MAC subcommittee at the public four-year CAO workshop on this topic. The May 18 meeting highlighted the Academic Audit process as a report on the UM pilot, and as a move toward process orientation in addition to looking at results. We should look at the board book agenda item related to campus based academic program review, as well as the MAC draft statement, and then move forward in providing input into the emerging process. Chief academic officers will be invited to appoint representatives to a working group on this project. Robert also indicated that there is interest in having two-year institutions participate in this initiative.

10:50 DHE website (Delores Honey, Dave Oehler)

Laura is the contact at DHE working on this. Different institutions are conceiving of this project in different ways, and have provided different kinds of information to the DHE. Delores will coordinate this with Laura so we can get closure on this. Delores' email address is: honey-d@mssu.edu.

11:10 MAC activity and impact on accreditation - PEAQ accreditation criteria (CVM)

Charles distributed a document showing the relationship between the HLC core components, the suggested patterns of evidence, and the institutional data/response (as related to assessment). A full document is available from Charles (request from him directly via email).

Some of the HLC suggested patterns of evidence are related to program review, which should be addressed in the emerging statewide program review process.

Please review this document - we will continue the discussion at a future meeting.

11:15 Evaluation of Assessment Instruments (MG)

The materials from MAC related to review of standardized assessment instruments is on Mike's web page at CMSU. Delores will include that in her discussions with Laura.

11:23 Joint meeting with CAOs (MG, DO, CVM)

We will pursue this with CAOs after we have specific information to share.

Mike announced that there will be a professional development meeting for Central Missouri State University faculty in Warrensburg this October (22nd) on assessment challenges in the general education skill areas. Mike indicated that Central would be pleased to expand the meeting to include faculty from throughout the state.

Program review might also be a topic. A common understanding of what constitutes embedded assessment would be a good tool for the assessment community. Student motivation as a larger issue might also be addressed.

11:40 Data sharing project (RP)

No update.

11:44 Remedial instruction/placement in the transition from K-12 to higher education (CVM)

Mike reported on a Bridge Program that CMSU has initiated to assist the transition to higher education. MAC could contribute to statewide understanding of remediation. Charles agreed to do some follow-up on this agenda at a future meeting.

11:48 Announcements

The data coordinators are working on a proposal to receive information on salaries of graduates who work in Missouri, through the DHE and Economics department at UMC.

Mike inquired whether other institutions have any general requirements for completing assessments, or achieving particular scores (especially as related to graduation requirements).

Next meeting date: July 29, 2004. DHE annex.

Next meeting host: Joe Lange will host. Dave Oehler will serve as historian.

Agenda for next meeting:

1. Value added (CLA) Project & MAC involvement (RS)
2. DHE website (DH)
3. MAC activity and impact on accreditation - PEAQ accreditation criteria (CVM)
4. Evaluation of Assessment Instruments (MG)
5. Joint meeting with CAOs (MG, DO, CVM)
6. Data sharing project (RP)
7. Remedial instruction/placement in the transition from K-12 to higher education (CVM)
8. Announcements