What is IE

Principles, Purposes, Participants, and Particulars of Assessment at Simmons

An Overview of Assessment at Simmons College of Kentucky

What is Assessment?

Assessment is an ongoing process to determine the effectiveness of an institution’s programs, services, and operations. Assessment provides a systematic approach to providing evidence of continuous improvement in programs, services, and operations.

Assessment at Simmons College of Kentucky is expected to:

1. Be an ongoing process that serves as a formative means of assessing a unit’s strategic vision;
2. Involve a systematic gathering, analyzing, and interpreting of data to determine how well performance matches expectations;
3. Use the resulting information to understand and improve programs, services, and operations.

Why is Assessment Important?

• We engage in assessment activities for four main reasons:
• Improve programs and services through assessment results that identify areas for change;
• Support decision-making processes, planning, program reviews and accountability;
• Demonstrate that a program or service is accomplishing what itclaims it is accomplishing or that students are learning what it is intended that they learn;
• Inform students, faculty, staff, and other stakeholders of the state of student learning or of a program or service and its impact.

How is Assessment Related to Accreditation?

The Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE) Standard 2b, with which Simmons College of Kentucky must comply, states:“The institution demonstrates that it is accomplishing and can continue to accomplish its mission, goals, and program objectives and improve performance through a regular, comprehensive, and sustainable system of assessment and planning. Central to this plan is the systematic and specific assessment of student learning and development through a strategy that measures the student’s knowledge, skills, and competencies against institutional and programmatic goals.”

The Assessment Support Team

The Assessment Support Team is charged with encouraging, coordinating, and facilitating assessment practices for the college by…

• Reviewing and evaluating annual assessment plans and reports for each department
• Ensuring that all programs have student learning outcomes in place
• Maintaining assessment records
• Monitoring best practices
• Providing training in institutional effectiveness
• Nurturing a culture of continuous evidence-based improvements for all College functions.

Membership:

EVP Institutional Effectiveness

IT / IS Representative

Academic Affairs Representative

Student Affairs Representative

Admissions Representative

Retention Representative

Administrative Representative