Assessment at Edmonds Community College
Edmonds Community College has a comprehensive Institutional Assessment Plan that outlines direct and indirect measures by which the college can systematically evaluate student achievement of learning outcomes at the course, program (i.e., degree and certificate) and institution levels.
The college’s Institutional Assessment Plan includes web links to information that college employees can use to help assess their courses, programs, and departments. Details of the direct and indirect assessment measures in the plan are located here.
Entry to Exit Assessment
In general, the college has defined assessment aspects for all points in students’ educational pathways. These include:
- initial placement;
- prior learning assessment;
- course-level learning objectives;
- program-level (i.e., degree and certificate) learning outcomes;
- institution-level outcomes (known as College Wide Abilities);
- exit level assessments at the course level (via the faculty/student evaluations) and upon graduation (via the Graduation Application and Transcript Evaluation System, or GATE); and
- student engagement and experiences (as measured via the Community College Survey of Student Engagement and other, home-grown surveys)
Assessment Support
Assessment at Edmonds Community College is supported by data and information that is generated by the college’s Office of Planning, Research, and Assessment (or OPRA).
In addition, assessment results are documented:
- in the college’s annual Institutional Performance Report;
- in each department’s SIMPLE Plan,
- in specific grant-funded project reports; and
- on the Washington State Board for Community and Technical College’s website.
Closing the Assessment Loop
Edmonds Community College views assessment as an ongoing, iterative process. In this sense, previous assessment results are used to modify programs, as necessary, and to promote continuous quality improvement of the services the college offers to students.
The college has been tracking assessment results since the mid-1990s.
Edmonds Community College is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). The NWCCU’s standards require that member institutions integrate evaluation, planning processes, and resource allocation; identify program-level learning outcomes; and regularly and systematically evaluate student achievement of all program level learning outcomes. Edmonds Community College’s Institutional Assessment Plan outlines how the college fulfills these accreditation requirements. The plan is adjusted, as necessary, to reflect the changing and evolving roles of assessment.
