An In-depth Look at 2016 Innovation Award Winner: DSAES Assessment Consultant Program

In April we happily announced the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services (DSAES) Assessment Consultant Program at University of Houston as recipient of the fourth annual NASPA Assessment, Evaluation and Research Knowledge Community Innovation Award.  This program was led by Pamelyn Shefman (Director of Assessment and Planning), Priyanka Raut (Career Counselor and Co-Chair of the Division-wide Assessment Committee), and Rebecca Szwarc (Administrative Assistant for Assessment and Co-Chair of the Division-wide Assessment Committee).

 We are here to tell you more about this awesome program! Attending the NASPA Assessment and Persistence Conference in Portland, OR this June? Be sure to watch the program schedule for the University of Houston team as they will presenting a program session on this innovative program.

The DSAES Assessment Committee utilizes a “consulting team” model to work with each of the 27 departments within the Divisions of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services. The Consultant Team Program was developed in 2013 to provide a guiding role for the division-wide assessment committee at a departmental level. In this role they facilitate conversations about the current assessment planning cycle and methodology in each assessment activities before the assessment activities take place.

Teams are constructed of members from different departments across the division to intentionally have broad representation of work across the division. This creates a team of three or four different departments working together for the year. This process creates 4 or 5 different departmental perspectives into an assessment plan evaluation meeting and assessment work across the year.

The consulting teams engage throughout the year as part of an assessment planning and summary reporting cycle. This cycle can be found HERE. 

The assessment committee consultants also use rubrics to both evaluate where the department’s plan is and the needed areas of improvement for preparing for the next assessment planning cycle. The rubric can be found HERE.

These touch-points provide support for the planned activities and reminders of the follow-up summary work that is completed after an assessment activity is done including any data to be assessed. This process keeps assessment activities and planning “in sight” and at the forefront of departments.

The move to submitting a draft within the cycle has allowed departments to stretch what they know about assessment activities and has shifted departments away from a heavy reliance on satisfaction as a measure of mission obtainment. Before consulting teams, departments reviewed plans when they created the plan then again at the end of the reporting year. Departments can now reach out to multiple people across campus when they need support.

As a result, ongoing professional development for both consultants and departments are being developed. This consultant team approach can be replicated on any size campus or division. With smaller campus resources, this model would be even more effective in increasing assessment capacity and competency. For a campus with larger resources and staff, this model provides an opportunity to share the wealth on important competencies in assessment planning that non-director level staff need as they move up in the organization. A large division can pull resources from across levels in their organization growing assessment culture and competency.

More information about DSAES Assessment & Planning at the University of Houston can be found online here: http://www.uh.edu/dsaes/about/assessment_planning/. Please join us in congratulation the DSAES Assessment Committee on their innovative approach and special award. 

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