This is directed mainly at persons in the North Central Association region, who
probably already know that the main thrust of NC visits is now assessment. As
chair of the Natural Science Division of our college, I have just returned from
a two day meeting with the dean and other division chairs and find myself
charged with spearheading the development of an assessment program for the
science and math departments. We are all pretty traditionalist in our division,
and I frankly don't have much of a clue as to the kind of thing that North
Central wants; we were pretty much assured that what is NOT acceptable in such
a program is exams, including standardized exams, peer review of anything,
external accreditation reviews. What we have to do is to create a means of
determining what we have actually taught our students that does not involve any
of the above. I would appreciate any suggestions that might be forthcoming from
anyone whose department / institution has already achieved North Central
approval of its assessment program, particularly as it relates to the sciences:
physics, chemistry, biology, math. Any help anyone can provide will be
sincerely appreciated.
Margaret J. Clarke
College of St. Scholastica
Duluth MN 55811 mclarke@css.edu