MAC Meeting Minutes November 2003

Missouri Assessment Consortium
Meeting notes - November 12, 2003

The meeting was held at Johnson County Community College in Kansas City. Charles Van Middlesworth hosted. Dave Oehler served as historian. Attendees/participants: Delores Honey, Mike Grelle, Nancy Asher, Bret Appleton, Joe Lange, Steven Beal, Cleo Samudzi, Charles Van Middlesworth, Martha Kirker

11:00 Welcome, agenda preview

11:10 Evaluation of Assessment Instruments (Mike Grelle, Chris Frazier)

Mike had no new report on this item. We still need materials for the valuing competency and critical/higher order thinking, if anyone has anything else to contribute. Mike will contact the DHE to have the materials that have been completed placed on the web. The RAND Council for Aid to Education project that will be piloted this spring is another set of instruments that we should try to evaluate.

12:03 Links to local general education information (Delores Honey, Dave Oehler)

Dave Oehler and Cleo have been receiving links from MAC members.

12:04 Joint meeting with CAOs, embedding assessment (follow-up) (Mike Grelle, Dave Oehler, Charles Van Middlesworth)

Dave, Mike, and Charles are still working on a proposal for a joint set of meetings to run concurrently with the March 2 CMSU spring assessment showcase next March. This will involve institutions sending departmental representatives, as well as faculty representing the areas of writing assessment and valuing. We will attempt to have a plan in place soon to return to CAOs for their information, and to solicit support in identifying faculty to attend (with sufficient time for their planning), and to cover travel expenses for attendees. We might have a session in the morning to look at how institutions are attempting to document and report achievement of competencies, and in the afternoon sessions organized around competencies.

12:18 Data sharing project (Ron Pennington in absentia)

No update. Cleo brought up the issue of the DHE annual report on transfer and articulation system effectiveness. Are there indicators in this data that could contribute to this report? Currently the only data analyzed are related to scope and magnitude of transfer. The preliminary answer is maybe, but there is a lot of data cleanup that needs to occur first, and methodologies need to be developed to document effectiveness. This would require substantial additional information and substantial effort. If this is pursued, then the usage agreement that was developed by Wei may need to be revisited to allow for this kind of usage and sharing.

12:32 Transfer of assessment data ()

This should be discussed after the March showcase.

12:33 High school data requests for the Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) (Martha Kirker)

Dave reported that high school surveys are not an official part of the MSIP requirements. We will hold this over for possible follow-up at the next meeting.

12:41 Announcements/Other

Mike asked whether institutions have policies on life-cycles of grades and assessments. How do you ensure that students have maintained appropriate levels of knowledge, skills, and abilities at graduation? CAEL might have some relevant materials for addressing this.

Next meeting date: The week of April 5, at the CBHE.

Next meeting host: Delores will host. Dave Oehler will serve as historian.

Agenda for next meeting:

1. Evaluation of Assessment Instruments (MG, CF)
2. Links to local general education information (DO, DH)
3. Joint meeting with CAOs (follow-up)
4. Data Sharing Project (RP)
5. Embedded assessment - design of a mechanism (MG, DO, CVM)
6. MAC Activity and Impact on Accreditation
7. High school data requests for the MSIP
8. DHE website
9. Announcements