Outcomes: faculty find new process offers prime feedback

Measuring what university students know or are capable of doing professionally when they graduate is a controversial issue, but several forces are driving a renewed national push for testing student outcomes on the college level.

A few of those forces include pressure from employers, rising college costs and President George W. Bush’s desire to bring accountability measures to higher education similar to the ones spearheaded into law for elementary and secondary schools, according to a July 2003 article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Some departments at Washington State University are implementing learning assessment for a variety of reasons. For one, such assessments are being integrated into the requirements of accrediting agencies. Universities that wish to achieve or sustain accreditation status are finding assessments necessary and even helpful.

“We can feed those outcomes back into a program for continual development and improvement,” said Ed Helmstetter, chair of WSU’s Department of Teaching and Learning in the College of Education.

With the aid of grant money, his department has undertaken a project to evaluate students’ culminating work at WSU and follow up on the graduates one year later.

“They’ve got to be able to plan their teaching in ways that take into consideration human development and learning theory,” Helmstetter said. “They should also consider individual differences that might occur because of cultural or linguistic backgrounds, or learning disabilities.”

But student assessment is not just a one-way street. Helmstetter’s department also gathers survey data each year from all in-state graduates regarding programs in the Department of Teaching and Learning. Adjustments to the curriculum are made on the basis of the feedback the program receives.

“This year some students said they wish they’d known something earlier in the program, so we’re talking about moving courses around,” Helmstetter said. “They wish they had more information up front on using technology in education or adapting curriculum for kids who have learning needs — special education students for example.”

Funding for the project came in an Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Improvement Grant from the office of Doug Baker, vice provost for academic affairs. Another round of similar grants is scheduled for this year.

Real-world proficiency assessed
Across campus in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences, chair Rick DeBowes described how faculty developed a test to assess learning outcomes — specifically graduate competency as clinicians.

Students are presented with five clinical case scenarios, requiring them to diagnose and recommend treatment for five animals.

Students must “accurately and carefully delve into the medical history, pull out the salient features and direct their questioning to confirm that their assumptions and understandings are correct,” DeBowes said. “They must correctly interpret physical examination findings and, based on history and that physical exam, come up with a reasonable list of acute problems that require attention.”

This evaluation program has earned WSU’s vet med program a unique distinction — it is the only clinical department in any of the 31 North American veterinary schools to administer a supplemental clinical proficiency exam.

The slant is practical, rather than theoretical, DeBowes said, “We don’t want to test on the esoteric. We want to give them the sort of entry-level experiences they will encounter the first week in private practice after they graduate.”

In addition, bedside manner, or the student’s communication skills with the animal and owner, rates on par with diagnostic skills, said DeBowes.

To help assess the quality of its graduates, the department also relies on its alumni in the field. WSU surveys, both formally and informally, alumni throughout the Pacific Northwest to gain insights about its graduates’ performance.

Clinical competency testing provided a turning point for students and faculty in the department, said DeBowes. “It is now part of our checks and balances. Eighty percent of our faculty have reported to me casually that senior students are much more prepared and focused on their education since the inception of this test.”

Are outcomes the best guides?
But not everyone expresses this satisfaction with the idea of specific testing for learning outcomes.

“Once you mandate things beyond the departmental level, it becomes threatening to faculty,” said Michael T. Nettles, of the Educational Testing Service, in the Chronicle of Higher Education article.

One way states have attracted faculty interest in measuring student learning is by linking new dollars to the results.

“When faculty see they are getting additional resources, they’re more interested,” said Nettles.

At WSU, Donald Orlich, professor emeritus in the Science Mathematics Engineering Education Center, said the success of students in the state of Washington is testimony enough that teachers are doing an exceptional job. He said his program’s students have had no trouble getting into good schools, good jobs and good post-doctoral positions.

“You want world-class standards? Well, we have them. However, we must ask the question that school reformers fail to ask: ‘What needs fixing?’ ”

He said he thinks politics in education prevent WSU education graduates from appearing as good as they really are. If teachers are judged by the success of their students, he said, then teachers in Washington are doing exceptionally well as gauged by the excellence of the state’s K-12 pupils.

“Our teachers are doing OK,” Orlich said. “Let ‘em teach! Get the politicians out of the classroom.”

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