key takeaways from the reading materials.If you ask students, "What question remains uppermost in your mind as we end this learning experience?" and students' responses are all over the map, you may be able to conclude that they have no major sticking point. But if a number of students raise questions about a point related to a particular learning goal, you have a clue that the curriculum or teaching methods may need to be modified to help students better achieve that learning goal. ? Integrating assessment pieces into an overall picture

- integrate evidence through a humanistic, qualitative approach. 2. If students performed poorly, why? (p 322)

There're possible reasons for disappointing outcomes, including: 
- curriculum design, 
- teaching methods, learning
- goals, 
- support systems, 
- and co-curricular. ? Sometimes the design and wording of the assessment itself is the culprit (??????). ? Sometimes a prompt (??????) is unclear; sometimes a multiple-choice question assesses a relatively trivial concept that many students missed;

? And sometimes a rubric is misinterpreted by the faculty using it to assess
student work. 3. Additional information may help you understand your evidence (322- 325)

Additional information on students' learning experiences and factors affecting them can help answer questions such as the following:

o Why did students learn X but not Y? o Why did some students master Z but others didn't? o Which courses best prepare students to succeed in the program capstone? o What are the experiences of students most likely to graduate? o What instructional strategies most help students learn to think critically? o Students in which academic programs, if any, have trouble developing
quantitative analysis skills? o Which high-impact practices most help students develop information literacy skills? A.	Look at learning goals. B.	Look at curricular materials. C.	Look at the use of research-informed teaching methods and high-impact practices. D.	Look at information on student progress, persistence, and success. E.	Look at what students bring to the learning experience. F.	Ask your students! G.	If you can, use learning analytics to connect the pieces. 4. Answering another key question: Stewardship (p 325)

Institutional Effectiveness and Institutional Assessment:

Institutional effectiveness refers to the effectiveness of a college in achieving its mission, goals, and the following responsibilities:

o Meeting stakeholder needs, especially student needs. o Serving the public good. o Stewardship. o Accountability. Institutional assessment gauges institutional effectiveness. Because student learning is the heart of most college missions, the assessment of student learning is a major component of institutional assessment. Information that might be used in concert with evidence of student learning to
analyze stewardship includes the following:

o Opportunities, expenditures, and participation rates for faculty and staff
professional development on teaching and learning. o Number and dollar value of grants awarded to improve student learning. o Funding for academic programs, support services, and co-curricular experiences. oInstructional facilities, technologies, and other resources. o Class sizes, student/faculty ratios, and/or ratios of students to full-time faculty. ? Documenting and analyzing the effectiveness of your
assessment strategies. (p326 - 327)

Whether you need to spend time documenting and analyzing the effectiveness
of your assessment tools and processes depends on their setting and how the resulting evidence will be used. Assessments used to inform large-scale, expensive, or life-changing decisions or 
whose resulting evidence is likely to be challenged need compelling evidence of their effectiveness. Examples include assessments used to inform decisions on who graduates, whether elaborate or expensive changes should be implemented, or whether a program should be terminated. It may not be worthwhile to invest time and resources in documenting and analyzing the effectiveness of assessments used to inform relatively minor decisions, such as changes in teaching strategies or in the curricular design of a single course or co-curricular activity. One way to document the effectiveness of assessment practices is simply to
keep records showing that they meet the traits offers other suggestions. Strategies to document and analyze the generalizability, dependability, and consistency of student learning evidence are discussed next. ? Analyzing the generalizability of your evidence (p 327-330)

If you decide that you need to analyze how well your evidence of student learning can be generalized into valid conclusions, consider the following questions:

? Do other assessments corroborate your evidence? Comparing evidence from various assessments against one another is called corroboration or triangulation. ? Does evidence fall in appropriate patterns? - Students at the end of a program should generally do better on an assessment. - Some evidence should predict current or future performance; scores on 
a pre-calculus tests. - And sometimes students should perform differently by major. ? How well does your sample reflect all your students? If you are assessing sample of student work (Chapter 12), you may want to compare the traits of students in your sample with the traits of the group your sample was drawn from. If 55 percent of all your college's students are women, for example, roughly 55 percent of the students being assessed should be women. ? Analyzing the dependability and consistency of your evidence

? Do faculty and staff assess student work consistently? ? How precise is your estimate from your sample? ? How well does each multiple-choice test item discriminate between high and low scorers? Item discrimination in multiple-choice tests refers to the item's capacity to discriminate between students who have generally learned what the test covers and those who haven't. It makes the following assumptions:

o	The purpose of the test is to discriminate between students who have learned the test material well and those who haven't. o	Test items that don't help make this discrimination are a waste of testing time. o	Students who do well on the overall test should be more likely to answer any one test item correctly than students who do poorly on the overall test. o	If students who do well on the overall test are less likely to answer a test item correctly than students who do poorly, the item is not working correctly. Item Analysis

Item analysis is examining the difficulty and discrimination of each multiple-choice test item. It can also include examining the difficulty and discrimination of each option within each item. o	Suskie, L. (2018). Assessing student learning: A common sense guide. John Wiley & Sons. Part 5 - chapter 25 (page 333- 353) Sharing Evidence of Student Learning
? Student learning evidence is often not shared in ways that promote its use. Evidence can be put to good use only after careful consideration and discussion, and that can happen only if summaries and analyses of evidence are communicated usefully, clearly, and accurately. How you share summaries and analyses of student learning evidence should therefore be planned as carefully as any other part of the assessment process. ? If you're not sure what decisions a particular audience is facing, try to find out before you share evidence with them. ? Don't forget that one of the purposes of reports on assessment plans and processes is to help everyone involved in assessment learn what constitutes good practice. Different people need different information to inform different decisions. Because different audiences want and need different evidence in different
formats and in different levels of detail, no one report, database, or website will meet everyone's needs. If you have surveyed graduating seniors, for example, perhaps only co-curricular staff need to see seniors' opinions of co-curricular experiences. Share a story with a clear point
Share student learning evidence in ways that tell important, coherent, interesting
stories with clear points that plainly connect to the decisions your audiences are
making. So, before you share student learning evidence, use your summary and analysis to figure out the big messages you want to convey to each audience. In other words, plan to share not data but information. Data and Information
Data are a set of numbers (the singular is datum). Information makes clear the story that the numbers are telling. Focus on sharing what's most important with your most important audiences

Make your efforts worthwhile by identifying your most important audiences and understanding what they most want and need to know. Then share only evidence that each audience can act upon. Don't bother telling your audiences that science majors graduate with stronger math skills than literature majors, for example. But do tell faculty that students at your college spend less time writing than students at peer colleges. If you have some evidence of student learning that no one seems interested in, ask yourself why you collected that evidence in the first place. View sharing evidence as a teaching/learning process

When you share student learning evidence, you are in essence educating your
audiences about something important: How well students are learning what you all
view as important. Sharing student learning evidence effectively thus means following good teaching practices (List 26.1 in Chapter 26), including the following:

o Understand your audiences and their needs. o Help your audiences see a synthesizing big picture: The big point of your
assessment story. o Present your evidence in a variety of ways, as discussed in the next section. o Be balanced and fair, as discussed later in this chapter. o Actively involve your audiences, as discussed at the end of this chapter. Create great visuals and reports

You can share student learning evidence in ways that people ignore, that leave
them confused, or that put them to sleep. Or you can share evidence in ways
that immediately engage them in discussing and acting on your evidence. Here
are suggestions for sharing student learning evidence in ways that will get it
discussed and used. Choose the right format for sharing your evidence

Today few people have the time to wade through a lengthy written report, and
technologies have made possible a host of alternatives. List 25.1 summarizes some
of the many ways to share summaries and analyses of student learning evidence. Formats for Sharing Summaries and Analyses of Student Learning Evidence
? Stacked bar graphs. ? Line graphs
? Pie graphs
? Tables
? Bulleted lists
? Infographics
? Dashboards
? Balanced scorecards
? Other visuals
? Oral presentations
? Written reports

Which format is best? It depends on what your audiences need to see and how
they prefer to receive information. Today people increasingly expect and appreciate visual information, but a few may prefer a traditional written report. The best approach may be a combination of modes, such as
brief oral remarks accompanied by slides, interactive discussion, and a written executive summary of key evidence. Data Visualization
Data visualization is presenting data visually to help people understand its meaning and significance. Keep it short
Provide a quick overview of the summaries, analyses, and implications that
will be of greatest interest to them - no more than one or two pages, if you're
communicating in writing. Pull out just the outcomes that clearly relate to key
learning goals of greatest interest to your audience

Keep things simple and clear

? Limit the amount of information
? Use bulleted lists
? Make every visual self-explanatory,
? Avoid jargon. ? Use numbers sparingly,
? Round figures. ? Have a friend review your draft. ? Don't assume a software-generated visual is readable. Make your key points pop (p341)

The best way to make points pop is through well-organized, eye-catching visuals. ? Use engaging, meaningful, self-explanatory titles, headings, and subheadings. ? Use visuals and formatting to draw attention to key points. ? Use traffic-light color coding:
? Cascade from major points to details. ? Sort your evidence in an order that helps convey your point. ? Make it easy for readers to see differences and trends. ? Don't rely on the standard framework for a traditional research report. Make evidence easy to find and access (p 346)

? Decide where and how to make your summaries and analyses available . . . ? Consider embedding summaries and analyses of student learning evidence with other relevant information. Venues for Announcing and Sharing Summaries and Analyses of Student Learning Evidence

o	Face-to-face or online presentations at standing or special meetings of relevant groups
o	Websites
o	Emails with embedded or attached summaries or hyperlinks to summaries
o	Social media with hyperlinks to summaries
o	Newsletters
o	Alumni magazines
o	Department memos
o	Press releases to the student newspaper and/or regional media
o	Advertisements in the student newspaper
o	Brochures
o	Handouts
o	Posters or banners
o	Snail-mailed summaries

? Plan multiple communication strategies. ? Should you share your evidence publicly? Be open, honest, balanced, and fair (347-348)

A number of professional organizations engaged in the assessment of human performance have developed statements of ethical standards for assessment. They suggest the following strategies for sharing evidence fairly and
Ethically:

o	Respect students' privacy and dignity while concurrently giving faculty, administrators, and other decision-makers sufficient evidence to make meaningful decisions. o	Give appropriate attribution to the work and ideas of others. o	Document dates and sources. Share disappointing outcomes honestly and with context
? Use student learning evidence ethically and appropriately
? Actively involve those who may feel threatened. ? Start with the positives. ? Focus on steps being taken to improve disappointing outcomes. ? Be gentle and sensitive. ? Document the quality of your assessment strategy. ? Acknowledge possible flaws in your assessment strategy. Share your assessment story with accreditors (p350-251)
While every accreditor's requirements and expectations are unique, the following suggestions should help you prepare a successful accreditation report. o	Understand what your accreditor ???? ?????? is looking for and why. o	Focus on four basic questions
o	View an accreditation report as a cousin of reports to your board
o	Follow the suggestions in this chapter. Move from sharing to action
If your evidence is going to be used, you'll need not only to share it but to make
sure, your audiences are actively engaged in discussing it.
A face-to-face session is one of the best ways to do this. o	Suskie, L. (2018). Assessing student learning: A common sense guide. John Wiley & Sons. Part 5 - chapter 26 (page 355- 365) Informing Decisions with Student Learning Evidence
Using Evidence of Student Learning to Inform Important Decisions
Some valuable ideas you'll find in this chapter:
o	Hands-on practice is a far more effective way for students to learn than listening to lectures. o	Consider giving funding priority to resource requests supported by assessment evidence. o	Using a single assessment score as a gatekeeper graduation or progression requirement is an unethical use of evidence of student learning. ? using evidence of student learning to inform those decisions and concludes with guidelines for using evidence ethically and responsibly. Using student learning evidence to recognize and celebrate successes (p 356)
Because a fundamental purpose of assessment is betterment- making changes
to help students learn and succeed even more effectively - it's easy to focus on
problems and not see - let alone celebrate - successful outcomes that need no
changes. Recognize and celebrate rather than reward. Recognize and honor assessment efforts. Recognize and honor assessment efforts. Use student learning evidence to give students the best possible education. Disappointing evidence of student learning can lead to decisions to try to improve learning by rethinking curricula, teaching methods, learning goals, support systems, and/or co-curricular. Use student learning evidence to ensure stewardship
Evidence of student learning can be used to inform stewardship decisions through resource allocations, program reviews, and, in limited circumstances, performance evaluations. Informing resource allocation decisions (p 360)
Two strategies can really help student learning evidence lead to better resource
allocation decisions:
Give funding priority to resource requests supported by disappointing evidence of student learning. A request for new lab equipment that is based on unsatisfactory student lab skills might receive priority, for example, over a request without such evidence. This can be a powerful strategy to promote a culture of assessment because faculty and staff will quickly learn that student learning
evidence literally pays off. Give funding priority to pervasive rather than isolated problems. This can foster collaboration rather than competition over scarce funds. If, for
example, there's pervasive evidence that students' information literacy skills are
inadequate, funding priority might be given to strategies that will help students,
faculty, and staff with this across several programs. Informing program reviews. A program review is a comprehensive evaluation of an academic program that is designed both to foster betterment and to demonstrate stewardship and accountability. Program reviews typically include a self-study conducted by the program's faculty and staff, a visit by one or more external reviewers, and recommendations for changes based on the conclusions of the self-study and the reviewer. Informing performance evaluations
Student learning evidence might be used to help inform faculty and staff performance evaluation decisions only under the following circumstances:
o Student learning evidence is part of a teaching portfolio documenting teaching effectiveness from a variety of perspectives. o Faculty and staff are evaluated not on student learning evidence per se, but on
how they are using that evidence to improve teaching and learning. o Individual faculty and staff are evaluated only on student learning in their
own classes and learning experiences, not in broader settings such as an entire
program or general education requirement. Changes to assessments don't count
Today the most frequent "uses" of student learning evidence are refining the
assessment tool or process.Focusing on "intended uses by intended users" (Beld, 2010, p. 6) also leads to a variety of applications of results within departments including redesigns of gateway courses, different approaches to providing feedback on student writing, or even different sequencing of courses. NILOA case study institutions have demonstrated that involving faculty formally, and in detail, in exercises designed to craft a set of specific teaching-related questions that faculty want answered can keep the focus of assessment on utilization. Front-end planning for utilization should also include expectations exercises: What do participants expect the data to reveal, or what might be the action or consequences of this or that result? Leveraging External Processes

Although accreditation has a strong role both in the motivation for assessment
and the use of assessment results, external influence on institutions'
assessment use is also felt from institutional membership initiatives,
national organization or foundation-supported efforts, and state mandates
or other accountability initiatives. Even so, results from NILOA's
provost survey revealed the most common use of assessment data is
related to accreditation--trumping all other uses including informing
strategic planning, improving instructional performance, and evaluating
units or programs. institutions can further the effective use of assessment results on their campuses by taking advantage of required external initiatives--like accreditation--and reorienting the mandated work around what is meaningful to the campus. The examples also show that the prestige and credibility gained through association with foundations and grants can help advance assessment work, as can the visibility from connections to national projects. Most important, however, these institutional cases exemplify the critical shift from thinking about accreditation as something done solely to satisfy accreditors to using the opportunity accreditation provides to stimulate genuine inquiry toward needed improvement in student learning and
institutional performance. Linking Assessment to Internal Processes

Assessment activity and use becomes a regular part of work in the academy when assessment is woven into established structures and processes (see Chapter 4 ). Campus leaders described how some of the practices associated with getting more faculty invested in assessment and making assessment activities more widespread
included making it part of standard institutional policies and procedures. Creating organizational structures and positions for assessment within
the institution has also made a difference. A director of institutional
research at a community college reported that assessment really took
hold on campus when an administrative position charged with assessment
responsibility--associate dean for student learning--was created
(Kinzie, 2010). Another approach to structural adaptation for assessment was
employed at the University of Missouri, where the director of the office
of assessment has moved efforts forward by working with programs he
perceives want support in assessment (Kinzie, 2010). The PRISM system is a consistent, transparent platform for documenting and displaying results and improvement plans. Notably, the featured rotating examples on the PRISM website's homepage in "Spotlights on Program Improvements"
illustrate CSU's emphasis on using results to improve.A heartening feature of the case study institutions is that they all saw room for improvement in their assessment efforts (Baker et al., 2012).Support for assessment from faculty and staff has increased with the growing emphasis on authentic and information-rich assessments more aligned with teaching and learning processes including portfolios, scoring rubrics, and surveys of student engagement that provide immediately useful feedback about instructional practice.The rising demand from colleges, universities, and academic departments for help in learning the rudiments of assessment and for opportunities to exchange ideas about assessment practice and resources for continuous improvement prompted the establishment of several formal efforts to advance assessment practice.In the practice of assessment, however, the dominance of accountability language and activities including testing, evaluation, measurement, and comparability can supplant language more frequently associated with student learning such as effort, growth, gain, mastery, and improvement.- The work in these early phases of assessment greatly emphasized a practical and scholarly orientation, made methodological contributions to the emerging scholarship of assessment, and also helped institutions understand student learning.By all accounts,
PRISM has intensified and normalized at CSU the use of assessment
information in continuous improvement across all levels--in courses,
programs, departments, and the university.While many advances in assessment use were in response to external requirements like accreditation, expansion also came and can still come from greater investments in the creation of structures and mechanisms to support and sustain assessment activities.Assessment's true aim is using results, harnessing evidence to inform educational improvements.o	Suskie, L. (2018).stewardship, 
2.????????2.3.