Commentary:

The Human Face of an Evolving Assessment Culture

 Editor's Note:  A writing team member was asked to compose

a personal perspective on the  development and implementation of

the SSC Assessment of Student Learning Program.  The following

converational account, a distinct departure in style from the

preceding document, discusses the maturation of the program.

In retrospect,  strengthening the assessment culture at SSC was eerily like moving through the Kubler-Ross stages experienced by patients who are coming to terms with a serious illness.   At SSC, we educators moved from denial—“Of course we assess student learning;” to anger—“Completely rebuilding our assessment program is patently unreasonable;” to bargaining—“Maybe we can show a good faith effort and just make a little progress;" to depression—“Impossible.  There are too many changes and this is way too much work to ever get done;” to acceptance—“I can see how this assessment stuff works to actually improve student learning in my classes.” Not that all of us are there yet, wherever there is in the world of assessment, but we have arrived at the place where assessment is not something being done to us.  It is something we are doing for us.  We have discovered being engaged in this consuming, wholesale creation of an assessment of student learning program is not because of having to do it for the assessment process, but because it really helps us be better at those things that matter most to us: teaching and learning.  It is not a borrowed assessment program.  It is ours.  This Seminole State College Assessment of Student Learning Program was one we educators chose, put in place, and will modify as we continue to get better at assessment.

Make no mistake, getting to this stage of our assessment development was not easy.  Faculty spent untold hours grappling with new concepts, trying to do things the way the experts said we should do them, devising objectives, revising syllabi, collecting data, analyzing results, looking for our "moved cheese," and snarling at the dark.  Characteristic of our institution, however, educators embraced the challenge, sometimes leading, sometimes following, but always because our core shared value is to care deeply about teaching and learning.  Our growth and maturity in developing a multi-tiered assessment program using direct measures to evaluate student learning across the curriculum continues to be a dynamic, evolving process that gets results for our students.  We have a good grasp of the big picture. and will continue to refine the process because of our overriding concern for student success and the contributions we as educators make in people’s lives.