Outcomes Assessment at Edmonds Community College

Washington State's Assessment Initiative has driven or supported most of Edmonds Community College's formal assessment work since the early 1990s. In 1989, the State Board for Community College Education (now, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges) created a Master Higher Educational Plan and a Student Outcomes Plan to evaluate and improve community colleges' effectiveness and students' educational experiences. Since 1990, the state has allocated assessment funds for each Washington community and technical college to support assessment work.

Outcomes assessment at Edmonds Community College focuses on the central question: In what ways can classroom and program assessment lead to authentic learning?

Maintaining a teaching-and-learning emphasis means relying on faculty-driven assessment efforts. So at Edmonds CC, we have chosen to direct our assessment resources to support faculty and staff through the use of two faculty mentors, Kathy Murphy and Beth O’Donnell.

The coordinators facilitate a variety of ongoing projects related to classroom and departmental assessment, such as

• Providing up to $500 "Mini-Grants" for individual or departments to do short-term, small-scale projects revolving around classroom or departmental outcomes and assessments.
• Offering workshops to new full- and part-time faculty members on infusing and highlighting the College-Wide Abilities in their instruction.
• Offering workshops to departments on coordinating their department's assessment initiatives.
• Assisting with assignment and assessment design.
• Offering support for individual faculty working on classroom-level assessment.

In addition, the coordinators oversee broader assessment projects. For example, beginning in 2006 and continuing through this year, they are piloting a project using Blackboard resources to help automate a large-scale assessment process related to diversity outcomes. The coordinators plan to expand the process to track and measure other outcomes. For descriptions of the pilot project and other projects, see the Annual Outcomes Assessment Reports.