Chicago City Wire

Chicago City Colleges - Assessment Committee met Wednesday, Oct. 12.

Here are the minutes as provided by the committee:

Assessment Committee - Harold Washington College

Executive Officers Carrie Nepstad (Chair) Jeffrey Swigart (Vice Chair of Gen Ed), Erica McCormack (Vice Chair of Unit Assessment), Jen Asimow (Online Learning), Jen Asimow (Program Assessment), Sarah Kakumanu (Research Analyst), Phillip Vargas (Research Analyst), John Kieraldo (Secretary)

Departmental Unit Assessment Liaisons Aigerim Bizhanova (Biology Liaison), Nick Ceh (Social & Applied Sciences Liaison), Margarita Chavez (WL ELL), Todd Heldt (Library), Fernando Miranda-Mendoza (Math and CIS Liaison), David Richardson (Humanities and Music Liaison), Amy Rosenquist (English Liaison), Bral Spight (Business Liaison), Paul Wandless (Art and Architecture Liaison), Allan Wilson (Physical Science Liaison)

Minutes for 10/12/2016 (Approved) 3:00 PM to 4:00 PM in Room 1046

Members Attending:

• Jen Asimow – Social & Applied Sciences

• Aigerim Bizhanova – Biology

• Nick Ceh – Social & Applied Sciences

• Cindy Cerrentano – Office of Instruction

• Sarah Kakumanu - Math and CIS

• John Kieraldo – Library

• Yev Lapik - Biology

• Erica McCormack - Humanities and Music

• Fernando Miranda-Mendoza - Math and CIS

• Willard Moody - English

• Carrie Nepstad – Social & Applied Sciences

• David Richardson – Humanities

• Amy Rosenquist - English

• Bara Sarraj - Biology

• Jeff Swigart - Math and CIS

• Ray Tse – Physical Science

• Phil Vargas – Physical Science

• Loretta Visomirskis – English

• Paul Wandless – Art & Architecture

• Jacquelyn Werner – Academic Support Services

• Vince Wiggins – Office of Instruction

• Matt Williams – WL ELL

• Allan Wilson – Physical Science Honored Guest:

• Margie Martyn – President

• Armen Sarrafian – Vice President

• Todd Heldt – library Apologies from:

• Margarita Chavez – WL ELL

Agenda:

1. Review of the minutes 

2. Apologies for absence

 3. Findings from the Natural Science assessment - Philip and Sarah

 4. Humanities assessment roll-out 

5. Prep for IUPUI 

6. Volunteers for 10/14 meeting

Intro, Apologies, and Previous Minutes:

Carrie called this meeting to order at 3:03 pm.

Apologies for absence:

Margarita Chavez sent her apologies for having to be absent for this meeting.

Review of 10/05 minutes:

Jen motioned to approve the minutes of the 10/05 meeting, and that was seconded by Cindy.

Findings from the Natural Science assessment:

Philip Vargas and Sarah Kakumanu presented to the Assessment Committee on their findings and recommendations from the Natural Sciences Assessment carried out in fall of 2015. Phil provided the Committee with a beautifully formatted, preliminary paper entitled Student Learning in the Natural Sciences: a Correlation Assessment. Among other findings, there was a demonstrated correlation between taking courses in the natural sciences and relatively high performance on the assessment tool.

Some questions posed by the committee included the following. What is the correlation between relative success on the assessment tool and courses taken in the discipline? Students who took courses in four disciplines – Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Inter-disciplinary 299 (STEM Scholar program) – performed relatively well according to statistical analysis.

It was suggested in the discussion that it would be interesting if it were possible to isolate four distinct groupings of students in order to see how they would excel on the assessment – students who haven’t taken any sciences courses, students who have had general education physical science, students who have taken general education biological science, and students who have taken both general education courses in physical and biological sciences.

Attitudinal questions arose in the discussion and were addressed in the paper. From the committee, one member wondered whether a desire to take a course in one of the natural sciences disciplines in the first place would tend to indicate a desire to excel in that discipline. Is this a valid assumption and how can it be answered by the assessment?

Carrie suggested running the Natural Sciences Assessment again in the near future. It is all set up and wouldn’t be difficult to run again.

Armen suggested running it as a District-wide assessment, assuming the learning outcomes are all the same. It was agreed that there would be lots of variables to sort out in such an endeavor, but that it’s something to think about down the road.

On Tuesday, October 18th, Phillip, Sarah, and Carrie will give a presentation on the Natural Sciences Assessment at the Assessment Institute held at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Humanities Assessment:

Carrie suggested that the members of the assessment committee each take the humanities assessment. She suggested that we take it anonymously but to indicate that we are taking it as an AC member.

Adjournment and Approval of These Minutes: Meeting adjourned at 4pm. These minutes were approved by Loretta Visomirskis, and seconded by Jen Asimow.