Retention and persistence models share common components such as student characteristics, institutional experiences, and academic and social integration. However, few acknowledge basic needs (e.g., food, housing, transportation) and belonging as essential to student success. In this piece, the authors discuss two gaps in these models that should…

Wright College is a Hispanic-Serving Institution and community college in Chicago, Illinois serving around 10,000 students per year. The majority of our students are First Generation, 36% are Pell-eligible, about 60% work in addition to taking classes, and many take advantage of the Healthy Market for free groceries on campus. In 2021 the college…

In this article, Julia So discusses the purpose of program assessment, four common missteps of program assessment and reporting, and how to prevent them. The four common missteps of program assessment and reporting she has observed are: (1) unclear or ambiguous program goals; (2) measurement error of program goals and outcomes; (3) incorrect unit…

Many institutions perceive accreditation processes as arduous and disruptive to daily operations. However, accreditation standards can (and should) be used for continuous institutional improvement. By understanding and leveraging these processes as guidance for good practice in student affairs, colleagues can be well positioned for ongoing best…

Is assessment a top-down bureaucratic mandate, an undertaking that seems to have little to do with improving practice, an inauthentic activity that frustrates and disempowers, an afterthought? Or is it a process embraced and enacted together by all stakeholders as a means to learn and grow and enact change in the world? The authors of the…

The Community Outreach Centre (COC) is part of the Community Development portfolio in the Division of Student Affairs at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It opened in fall 2007 as a resource and support centre for students who live off campus. The overarching goal of the centre is to cultivate community among off-campus students…

Assessment practices at Sinclair Community College have evolved since the early 1980s to a highly sophisticated set of processes that begin with the collection, analysis, and documentation of general education and program outcomes data and result in course and program improvements. A continuing challenge has been the development of new full-time…

This article describes how St. Louis Community College has created a culture of action using mission-based assessment. By directly linking assessment processes to mission areas such as transfer education, the college has created a central, unifying theme for assessment. Because the mission is everyone's business, assessment in turn becomes…

Frederick Community College's assessment of student learning within student affairs has evolved as a result of the confluence of three transformative initiatives: (1) the institution's decision to shape itself into a learning college; (2) the revision of accreditation standards, placing increased emphasis on institutional assessment and assessment…

Many people know the myth of Sisyphus, the ancient king who committed an offense against the gods and was condemned for an eternity to roll a boulder unsuccessfully to the top of a steep hill. Each time he reached the summit, the boulder, of its own weight, would roll back to the bottom, whereupon Sisyphus would have to begin laboriously rolling…

Accountability efforts at California's community colleges gained prominence in the 1990s under an agreement known as Partnership for Excellence (PFE) that involved the chancellor's office, the legislature, and the governor's office. This agreement was the first wide-ranging accountability effort undertaken by the state's community college system.…

The college president's role in supporting and promoting student learning outcomes and institutional assessment is a herculean one. At Guam Community College (GCC), the president has been performing a crucial role in setting an assessment example for the rest of the college community since he took office on June 16, 2001. Seeking to model an…

The author is an outgoing faculty chair of the college assessment committee (CAC) at Moravian College. In this article, he shares the learned principles and constructive practices that guided his ten years of successful progress in fostering assessment: (1) Assessment must be part of the strategic plan; (2) Assessment language must be consistently…

While assessment of student learning outcomes has become standard operating procedure on virtually every campus, the driving forces for pursuing assessment remain primarily external. For that to change, campuses must evolve toward a culture of assessment based on the shared values and expectations that arise out of a community. The first step in…

During the 2006 fall semester, Nashville State Technical Community College (NSCC) completed a review of its general education program, including assessment of student success. A major advantage in assessing general education is that a number of measures are available for this purpose. A major disadvantage is that these measures rarely can be tied…