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Rio Salado Class of 2017 Excellence in Assessment Team |
The Excellence in Assessment (EIA) program – the first national designation of its kind – spotlights institutions successfully integrating assessment practices across campus, providing evidence of student learning outcomes, and using assessment results to guide institutional decision-making and improve student performance.
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President Bustamante |
“Creating a culture of evidence is a priority at Rio Salado,” said Bustamante. “Student assessments provide critical data that help us customize learning, identify trends, troubleshoot issues and discover new opportunities to continually improve the way we serve students,” said Bustamante.
Rio Salado College has worked diligently to foster a culture of assessment and analysis for more than 20 years.
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VPAA Kate Smith |
The sponsors of the EIA program are the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), a public college and university transparency initiative led by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), in partnership with the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) and the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).
The designation was created to acknowledge on a national level the important work colleges and universities are doing through comprehensive assessment activities and to highlight those practices so other institutions can draw upon them for their own efforts. As part of the application process, colleges and universities were asked not just to detail the specific assessment activities they’ve undertaken, but also the reason why such efforts are a priority for them. The designees needed to demonstrate how aligned processes, building from classroom-based assessment, foster a coherent, collaborative approach to assessing student learning.
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The EIA Designations are directly linked to NILOA’s Transparency Framework, and are the first national program designed to recognize institutions engaging in intentional campus-wide assessment. The evaluation process for the designation included a rigorous and systematic self-study and peer review by faculty members and staff who are assessment experts, and include feedback that enables campuses to improve their effectiveness and sharing of best practices. Accredited, degree-granting institutions working to implement and sustain comprehensive use of assessment of student learning outcomes are eligible to receive the designations. The application period for the 2018 class of designees will open in November. More information on the EIA Designation web page.
Rio Salado team pictured above. Back row (left to right): Languages Faculty Chair Angela Felix, Communications Faculty Chair Julie Cober, English, Creative Writing, and New Media Studies Faculty Chair Jennifer K. Shantz, Associate Dean, Institutional Research Dustin Maroney and Coordinator of Institutional Effectiveness Zach Lewis. Front row (left to right): Library Services Faculty Chair Hazel M. Davis, Vice President of Academic Affairs Kate Smith and Reading and ESL Faculty Chair Rosslyn Knight.