Anthology Blog

Entering a school year that looks very different from what we’re familiar with, there is more of a priority than ever for colleges to create cocurricular experiences that translate to learning and promote the skills employers want. It is not enough to believe we are teaching these skills.

Assessment has been used to evaluate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts and it is time to shift the discussion to embedding DEI efforts into the practice of assessment. A number of practitioners who participated in a recent survey about the intersections of assessment and equity, agree.

The summer months provide an opportunity to reset, reflect and re-examine many of our institutional processes. As we strive to make annual assessment meaningful and manageable, we must evolve ongoing processes based on our unique students, curricula, resources and culture.

Student Success is often used as short-hand for the larger retention-persistence-graduation (RPG) conversation. The term student success can refer to a wide variety of things including precollege characteristics, quantifiable student attainment indicators, measures of academic achievement and personal and student development characteristics.

Campuses have shared a great variety of ways the pandemic has impacted assessment. Some reported a heightened emphasis on data and an increase in activity—others said they cancelled assessments and lowered expectations.

Everyone knows that assessment is all about the use of the data. There’s a reason that “closing the loop” is one of the most used and most loved phrases in the assessment professional’s handbook – it’s always relevant. The assessment cycle (whatever version of it you use) is here to stay – it’s always a loop, and that final step is what matters.

College can be a significant catalyst in a person’s identity development. As students interact with new people and complex environments, they gradually explore personal interests and boundaries, discovering...

Student affairs practitioners can feel as if they’re on a constant crusade to justify the impact of their programs, services, and interactions. Collecting and analyzing data and sharing the findings – and any efforts to make improvements and change – goes a long way toward building credibility for programs and services. To do that consistently and effectively, student affairs practitioners and leaders must strive for a culture of evidence.