Keys to Creating Sustainable College Based Assessment

In spring 2007 WASC informed Sac State that by spring 2009 the university needed to make substantial progress in assessing student learning. In this session we tell our story and share our challenges, solutions, and results. To meet the challenge, the College of Social Sciences and Interdisciplinary Studies established a leadership structure for assessment, worked closely with the university assessment coordinator, studied assessment theory and practice, and took many other steps. A critical component was the WASC rubrics: we used them to establish our goals and to critically analyze our assessment activities. The results? We now have a much better understanding of assessment and WASC expectations; we are much more interested and involved in program assessment; we are much better at assessing student learning and making meaningful changes; and we have made great progress at both addressing our own concerns and meeting WASC expectations.