Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Assessment And Support For Basic Computer Skills At Community College Hispanic Serving Institutions In California, Jason Wayne Hough

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This cross-sectional survey study was conducted to determine if California community colleges designated as Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) assess incoming students for basic computer skills, provide learning support for these skills, as well as assess the attitude of administrators towards basic computer skills of incoming students. Prior published research documented the false assumption in higher education incoming students are “digital natives”, capable of effectively using technology expected on college campuses; however, there was no research focused on community colleges designated as HSIs. The study adds to the body of literature about the assessment of and support for basic computer skills …

What To Do With All This Data? Using Competency Assessment For Advising, Rachel A. Guimond, Hillary Cole

Scholar Week 2016 - present

While assessment serves a critical role in providing direction for program development, student outcome data can also foster individual growth. This presentation will explore the existing research on different advising models and the ONU Social Work Program’s system for using assessment for accreditation to advise students toward professional growth.

What We Can Learn From College Reform In The Eu, Jacqueline Kress

Academic Chairpersons Conference Proceedings

The Bologna Process—a curriculum reform encompassing 48 EU countries—engages faculty by discipline to articulate what students should be able to know, do, and understand at each degree level through academic dialogue. This session overviews its mechanisms and challenges and provides guidance for applying its lessons at US institutions.

Using Curriculum Mapping And Visualization To Maximize Effective Change, Kelli Schutte, Chris Mccullick, David Line

Administrative Issues Journal

This paper shares the process of developing a fully integrated assessment framework and model for a mapping curriculum. The foundational aspects of this model are the development of layered outcomes that occur at each level of the curriculum and the linking of courses together to ensure building blocks that are progressive within a program. The presented framework not only measures this integrated nature but also allows for assessment that is both summative and formative. A view of the different aspects of curriculum application—from knowledge building, application of knowledge, and transferability of knowledge to new contexts—is a focus of the course …

Examining The Relationship Of Textbooks And Labs On Student Achievement In Eighth Grade Science, Don Jones, Marie-Ann Mundy, Lavonne Fedynich, Anacita Sugalan

Administrative Issues Journal

One of the most important objectives of teachers, parents, school administrators, and students is to improve student scores on standardized tests, such as the State of Texas Assessment for Academic Readiness (STAAR) in eighth-grade science. This quasi-experimental study examined the science achievement scores between schools that used different textbooks and labs when delivering instruction. This study utilized a quantitative approach, using archival data and survey design. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and multiple regression were used to analyze the data while controlling STAAR eighth-grade reading scores to reveal significant differences between classes. The sample and population for this study were predominantly …

Hbcus: Accreditation, Governance And Survival Challenges In An Ever-Increasing Competition For Funding And Students, Jerry Crawford Ii

Journal of Research Initiatives

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are facing challenges to their continued existence on several fronts. One is fiscally, as federal funding for education has been cut and the responsibility for paying for higher education has been levied on students and parents. Another challenge is the amount of endowment dollars available to them and lastly, there are questions today as to if HBCUs are still needed in a society that has allowed African-Americans to enroll in Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). Both of these challenges are contingent on the most critical issue – accreditation. The loss of accreditation of units and …

The Promises And Realities Of Evidence-Based Practices: Perceptions From Assessment Personnel, Jessica A. Rueter, Cynthia G. Simpson

Jessica Rueter

Assessment personnel are those individuals who work in the capacity of evaluation of students with disabilities, including, but not limited to, educational diagnosticians, educational examiners, psychometrists, and instructional specialists. These professionals are responsible for identifying strengths and weaknesses and for providing teachers with evidence-based recommendations that can be implemented in the classroom to improve performance of students with learning deficits. This qualitative study examines 19 educational diagnosticians’ perceptions related to the barriers and supports that impacted their ability to provide evidence-based recommendations for students who are learning disabled. Three categories of barriers to issuing successful evidence-based recommendations emerged as a …

Alumni Survey Fall 2015, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Community Engagement

The alumni survey provides the university information on the lives of students one or more years after graduation and their opinions about various topics concerning their time at UNO and beyond. In the past, UNO used an external vendor, ACT, to conduct the alumni survey. The survey was long, the cost was high, the response rate was extremely low, and, ultimately, the vendor discontinued the survey. UNO decided the best route was to create and administer their own alumni survey.

Alumni from 2010 and 2012 were surveyed by UNO in Fall 2015 in an effort to learn which cohort would …

Faculty Perceptions On The Student Learning Accountability Movement, Tara Rose

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Literature examining the impact of the student learning accountability movement on faculty perspectives is insufficient, as little is known about how faculty perceive the requirements related to federal, state, and institutional accountability initiatives. This case study investigated the threat posed by the accountability movement on the stability of faculty engagement, while exploring how faculty perceptions of the movement will impact institutional and state policy. Using Levin's system of accountability as the framework for this study, the central research question explored how understanding faculty perspectives on the student learning accountability movement could promote policy within an institution. Data were gathered via …

Mission Statements As Naming Proposals: An Rsi Approach, Susan K. Opt

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This study explores the communication process used to generate and express communication program mission “names.” It argues that the process that underlies the creating, maintaining, and changing of names, ranging from the specific to the ideological, also generates academic unit “mission.” Viewing mission texts through the lens of the rhetoric of social intervention model reveals how the texts reason rhetorically as they propose and provide evidence for the “appropriateness” of a unit’s constituted mission name. Awareness of the rhetorical-reasoning pattern can help unit members make sense of mission-building or -revising work and provide a practical way for them to organize …

Implementing Universal Social And Emotional Learning Programs: The Development, Validation, And Inferential Findings From The Schoolwide Sel Capacity Assessment, Cheyne A. Levesseur

Doctoral Dissertations

In order to effectively transport universal social and emotional learning (SEL) programs into natural settings, it is important to understand implementation barriers that may hinder the likelihood of successful outcomes (Fixsen, Naoom, Blasé, Friedman, & Wallace, 2005). The current study is primarily based on the notion that within the planning phase of implementation, few technically adequate assessment measures targeting both organizational capacity (OC) and provider characteristics (PC) for SEL programming actually exist. The purpose is to extend the SEL implementation assessment literature by developing a new rating scale designed to measure SEL implementation barriers (School SEL Capacity Assessment [SSCA]) and …

Building Support For The Introductory Oral Communication Course: Strategies For Widespread And Enduring Support On Campus, Jon A. Hess

Jonathan A. Hess

A strong introductory course is important for many communication departments, for the discipline, and for meeting our obligation to society. This paper utilizes the example of a recent curricular reform that threatened to eliminate a required oral communication course to reflect on strategies departments can use to build widespread and lasting support for the course. The paper reviews the events that led to the challenge and details the department’s response, which offers lessons that may be useful for other institutions. Four lessons include: * Tailoring the introductory course to the institution’s needs and mission * Involvement in university work * …

Classroom Projects As Embodied And Embedded Outcomes Assessment, Garnet C. Butchart, Margaret Mullan

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

Although educators already recognize the value in engaging student learning through classroom projects and service-learning, assessment of student learning through classroom projects may be accompanied by a shift of attention from mastery of ideas to embodied knowledge. We argue that embodiment is the basic semiotic condition of being human—of being both an expressive and perceptive (communicative) being among others. Linking this philosophy of communication principle to the topic of assessment, the article offers assessment research a focus of attention on learning settings: from embodiment as learning context, to the built environment of classrooms, as well as to group interaction. We …

Comparing Basic Computer Literacy Self-Assessment Test And Actual Skills Test In Hospital Employees, Jolly Peter Isaac

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A new hospital in United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to adopt health information technology (HIT) and become fully digitalized once operational. The hospital has identified a need to assess basic computer literacy of new employees prior to offering them training on various HIT applications. Lack of research in identifying an accurate assessment method for basic computer literacy among health care professionals led to this explanatory correlational research study, which compared self-assessment scores and a simulated actual computer skills test to find an appropriate tool for assessing computer literacy. The theoretical framework of the study was based on constructivist learning theory …

The Foundations Of Student Affairs: A Guide To The Profession, Dallas Long

Dallas Long

Student affairs is a large, complex area of campus operations and is comprised of many departments with professionals from a wide variety of educational backgrounds. Long provides a short history of the student affairs profession, followed by an overview of the departments in a typical student affairs division and the responsibilities and goals of the professionals in those departments. Long also describes the values that guide the work of student affairs professionals and the contemporary challenges they face.

Characteristics Of Contemporary U.S. Progressive Middle Schools, Jan Ware Russell

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Progressive education has a long history within the American K-12 education system dating back to the late 1800s. During this period, two very distinct ideologies represented progressive education: 1) administrative progressives supporting standardization as a means of efficiency and 2) pedagogical progressives supporting child-centered learning based upon a well-rounded education. This study looks at 82 contemporary pedagogical progressive schools to identify common characteristics. Child-centered learning, community integration, and democratic decision-making were the three overarching philosophies covered in this study. Data was collected through an online survey of school leaders. The majority of research surrounding progressive education is qualitative and focuses …

Major Difference: An Examination Of Student Writing Performance By Major And Its Implications For Business Communication, Lucia S. Sigmar, Geraldine E. Hynes

Administrative Issues Journal

This study analyzes the writing performance levels of 352 students to determine the extent to which business students are achieving written communication competency and whether differences exist among the business majors. Although most students met or exceeded expectations in format and content on a common writing task, students were weakest in grammar and mechanics, with almost half scoring below expectations across all majors. The findings indicate no statistically significant differences in writing competency among majors. This study also suggests that business communicators can serve as “collegial consultants” in a cross-disciplinary effort to improve student writing.

The Promises And Realities Of Evidence-Based Practices: Perceptions From Assessment Personnel, Jessica A. Rueter, Cynthia G. Simpson

Administrative Issues Journal

Assessment personnel are those individuals who work in the capacity of evaluation of students with disabilities, including, but not limited to, educational diagnosticians, educational examiners, psychometrists, and instructional specialists. These professionals are responsible for identifying strengths and weaknesses and for providing teachers with evidence-based recommendations that can be implemented in the classroom to improve performance of students with learning deficits. This qualitative study examines 19 educational diagnosticians’ perceptions related to the barriers and supports that impacted their ability to provide evidence-based recommendations for students who are learning disabled. Three categories of barriers to issuing successful evidence-based recommendations emerged as a …

Assessing Organizational Image Through The College Open House: A Tool For Success, Andrea M. Pampaloni, Andrea Vadaro Tucker

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

This study evaluates how effective colleges and universities are in presenting an accurate and positive organizational image via their open house events. The Open House Assessment for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) © was developed to determine how institutional characteristics identified by potential members as influential to their decision to affiliate with a school were made relevant through the organizational image presented by the school. Open house events at twenty-four colleges and universities were assessed using the tool. Findings indicate that there are overall modifications to open house events that might benefit all schools, suggesting that the tool can be an …

Adapting Assessment For The Field Of Communication, Marcus Paroske, Sarah Rosaen

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

It has now become a universal mandate that communication programs conduct assessment of whether students attain selected learning outcomes. However, approaches to assessment unique to communication beyond the basic public speaking course are rare in the literature. This paper defends a “meta-assessment” approach to communication assessment as a key to negotiating the unique attributes of the field of communication, especially in heterogeneous academic departments and programs. It further argues that this approach can benefit assessment of similar, interdisciplinary academic programs.

Building Support For The Introductory Oral Communication Course: Strategies For Widespread And Enduring Support On Campus, Jon A. Hess

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

A strong introductory course is important for many communication departments, for the discipline, and for meeting our obligation to society. This paper utilizes the example of a recent curricular reform that threatened to eliminate a required oral communication course to reflect on strategies departments can use to build widespread and lasting support for the course. The paper reviews the events that led to the challenge and details the department’s response, which offers lessons that may be useful for other institutions. Four lessons include: tailoring the introductory course to the institution’s needs and mission, involvement in university work, making compelling use …

Building Support For The Introductory Oral Communication Course: Strategies For Widespread And Enduring Support On Campus, Jon A. Hess

Communication Faculty Publications

A strong introductory course is important for many communication departments, for the discipline, and for meeting our obligation to society. This paper utilizes the example of a recent curricular reform that threatened to eliminate a required oral communication course to reflect on strategies departments can use to build widespread and lasting support for the course. The paper reviews the events that led to the challenge and details the department’s response, which offers lessons that may be useful for other institutions. Four lessons include:

* Tailoring the introductory course to the institution’s needs and mission

* Involvement in university work

* …

Assessment Training In Principal Preparation Programs, Bettye Grigsby, Winona Vesey

Administrative Issues Journal

The role of the administrator has evolved over the past 30 years from manager to instructional leader. As instructional leaders, administrators are now responsible for student achievement on high-stakes state-mandated assessments. Therefore, it is imperative principal preparation programs provide the necessary training instructional leaders need to analyze and interpret assessment data and make informed decisions toward school improvement. This descriptive study analyzes four syllabi components to determine the extent to which testing and measurement are covered in each course: objectives, classroom sessions, resources, and activities. Based on responses from 30 universities across the United States, less than 30% of principal …

Pedagogical Design For A Cross-Functional Course In The Accelerated Mba Program, Bhanu Balasubramnian, Tanja Steigner, Kevin R. Coulson

Administrative Issues Journal

The sub-prime financial crisis exposed weaknesses in the financial risk management of several prominent firms. A deficient risk management is mainly attributed to the lack of integration of finance with other business disciplines. In this paper, we describe a tested implementation of a cross-functional project that improves students’ understanding of firm-value creation and risk management. While this approach can be implemented in any MBA program, we focus specifically on accelerated MBA programs with tight time constraints. Our methods are different from most other integrated courses in several ways. Our cross-functional project bridges the knowledge gaps of students in the area …

The Massillon Artful Living Project: Some Positive Results Are Evident, Oscar T. Mcknight, John Sikula, Gary Zoldesy

Oscar T McKnight Ph.D.

The Massillon Artful Living Project (ALP) was created to immerse developing minds in the fine arts and to enhance the creativity, social skills, and academic achievement of preschool children. The data analyses to date support program expansion. Also, feedback by teachers, parents, administrators and community arts providers are positive.

Abbott: Istep+ Scores — It Depends On How You Look At Them, Jeff Abbott

Jeff Abbott

This paper uses control charts and trend lines to suggest that Indiana teachers may be doing a better job educating Indiana students than policy makers think.

Assessment Issues And Practice In Residential Education., Deborah Grandner, John D. Foubert

John D. Foubert

Issues and ideas on how to conduct assessment in college and university residence life programs are reviewed.

Connecting Education, Work, And Citizenship: How Assessment Can Help, Marcia Mentkowski, Glen Rogers

Glen Rogers