While the purpose of this Resource Guide is to equip student affairs professionals with assessment tools, achievement of assessment competencies alone is not sufficient to cause a pervasive application of assessment into the way student affairs works. Such a vision is in the profession called a “culture of evidence” (Culp & Dungy, 2012, p. 5) or “culture of assessment” (Henning & Roberts, 2016, p. 263). A division with a culture of assessment has the following characteristics:
- Assessment is engrained in everyday practice. In addition to conducting assessment when required for institutional reporting, assessment is initiated because staff find inherent value.
- Assessment efforts aren’t limited to a small number of staff. There will be assessment professionals with which to consult and gain experience, but all staff engage in assessment as an integral part of their work.
- Assessment uses a variety of techniques. Evidence isn’t limited to surveys or swipe data, but rather uses a full repertoire of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed method approaches to suit the needs of each assessment and capture all relevant evidence.
- Assessment is used to tell the story of student affairs. Evidence is organized and presented to internal and external stakeholders to prove the value of student affairs.
- Assessment is used to improve student affairs. The assessment cycle is closed, meaning results of assessment are used to inform changes to a program, service, etc., in turn restarting the assessment cycle to assess the hopefully positive effect of these changes.
There are a variety of strategies that student affairs professionals can use to foster a culture of assessment:
- Recognize assessment efforts, formally and informally. Whether findings are positive is not important but rather that the assessment was conducted with quality and the results are informative.
- Support positive restlessness, meaning a persistent desire to improve. Recognize and maintain what is going well, while seeking other ways to refine.
- Design assessment efforts so they are embedded into standard business practices, making them more efficient than standalone projects.
- Make assessment authentic, meaning it validly represents what is being assessed. In the frequent case of students as the subject, involve students in the design and analysis to confirm their experience 0.is captured accurately.
- Keep assessment transparent, including the purpose, methods, and limitations with results so the audience has a first-hand perspective of the entire assessment cycle. In this way they can draw their own conclusions, and they see an improvement mindset in action.
- Collaborate on assessment efforts with a variety of colleagues, in order to gain perspective as well as motivate each other.
- Close the loop. Act on results, and revisit them to confirm evidence was used to inform decisions.
- Be a continuous learner and apply what you learn to your work. Whether learning specifically about assessment, or about other topics, new knowledge brings perspective to inform assessment efforts as well as better prove and improve the story of student affairs.
- Map assessment projects together to form a comprehensive mosaic about units and the division. Connect evidence to mission statements, theory, benchmarks, and plans so it is framed and applied strategically.
While these strategies benefit from leadership buy-in, they remain applicable and beneficial to staff across student affairs. Assessment competencies, and the mindset to include assessment in student affairs practice, are valued qualities in the profession.