RRCC Assessment Council Charter

Mission:

The mission of the Assessment Council is to build and sustain a culture of assessment through inquiry and evidence in support of teaching and learning at Red Rocks Community College.

Description:

The Assessment Council is a faculty-led organization, comprised of faculty, administration and staff, who coordinate efforts to improve teaching and facilitate improvement and understanding of student learning at RRCC. The scope of the Assessment Council’s work includes building sustaining a culture of inquiry by supporting faculty through the academic program review process and continuous quality improvement. Through mentoring and coaching, faculty engage in best practices related to assessment of student learning at the course, program, and institutional levels. Meetings are open to all RRCC employees although voting rights are restricted to official members.

Goals:

The Assessment Council will purposefully integrate assessment of student learning into the process of academic program review by:

• Supporting academic programs and operational units throughout the ILEARN process;
• Mentoring faculty and administrators on best assessment practices and significant use of assessment data to support student learning;
• Organizing a forum for reflective practice and meaningful discussions about student learning and assessment to create a sustainable culture of effective teaching and learning that is evidence based.

Objectives:

• 100% of programs will have aligned curriculum maps by September 2018;
• 80% of operational units will have aligned (SLO/PLO/CLC) assessment plans by May 2019;
• 25% of assessment plans will be complete by September 2018.
• This assessment plan is divided into four parts:
  1. planning/documenting with sharing and rollout to faculty (September);
  2. collecting pre-baseline data, implementing pre-plan (Fall/Spring);
  3. collecting baseline data (Spring);
  4. implementing action plan (Summer).

Scope of Work:

The Assessment Council will:

• Support programs and operational units throughout the ILEARN process by facilitating the use of assessment results to inform teaching practices;
• Deliver faculty professional development related to assessment and teaching and learning as they relate to assessment methods, aims, and process;
• Facilitate a reflective practice forum for meaningful discussion of assessment of student learning to expand and sustain the culture of evidence based effective teaching and learning at RRCC;
• Maintain evidence and documentation (SLAP and curriculum maps) for Assessment Council assessment plan by collecting data from department leaders annually;
• Serve as liaisons to broad college initiatives focused on student success and continuous quality improvement;
• Meet weekly during the semester.

Outcomes:

The Assessment Council will produce an annual report focused on Student Learning Assessment Plans; the report will facilitate the college’s understanding of how faculty use assessment methods to improve student learning and refine teaching practices; reports will be made available to faculty, the Instructional Leadership Team, and the Instructional Research Department.

Membership:

• Assessment Council faculty members: Chelsea Campbell, Dan Sohl, Jenning Prevatte, Soomin Chun-Hess, Laura Sakry, Kelly Jo Eldredge, Kevin Stiffler
• Faculty chairs: Jenning Prevatte
• Consultants: Jen Macken, Mike Coste, Jen Kroetch

Roles:

• Co-Chairs: call meetings, schedule rooms, issue agendas, draft work plans and reports, and disseminate achievements to faculty.
• Faculty members: work divided equally to achieve goals.

Charter Review Policy

The Assessment Council will review this charter annually and report any revisions to faculty and instructional leadership.