Assessment at St. Olaf has long been understood as “inquiry in support of student learning.” We gather systematic evidence of our students’ knowledge, proficiencies, and learning experiences, so we can sustain what is working and strengthen what needs to be improved.
We are committed to an assessment program that is:
Student-centered
Assessment helps us determine the extent to which we are realizing the educational goals we have established for our students.
Intended learning outcomes for the OLE Core (general education) curriculum and for majors, concentrations, and other academic programs guide our data-gathering at the program level.
Mission-driven, meaningful, and manageable
Assessment advances the mission of the college by helping us evaluate and strengthen our work with students.
We use a variety of approaches to gathering evidence, because multiple methods are more likely to yield meaningful results. We streamline our work through an annual survey schedule and OLE Core assessment schedule that cycles through different instruments and assessments each year.
Equitable
Assessment is used as a means to advance the equity goals of the College. Practitioners are encouraged to pay attention to the ways in which their assessment practices align with best practices for equity-minded assessment.
Equity goals should be assessed regularly to gather meaningful evidence about progress. Those conducting assessments should use an equity-minded approach to ensure that their findings reflect the experiences of all students and provide students with multiple ways to demonstrate their learning. Visit the IE&A page on Equity in Assessment to learn more.
Faculty- and staff-supported
The assessment program is led through a partnership between the elected faculty Academic Assessment Committee, the Provost, the Co-curricular Assessment Committee, and Institutional Effectiveness and Assessment.
The Academic Assessment Committee advises faculty and academic departments on assessment procedures and methods for program-level assessment and assessment of the OLE Core. The Co-curricular Assessment Committee serves as a community of practice for staff engaged in assessment across co-curricular areas of the college. Both work with IE&A to carry out St. Olaf’s assessment program.
Utilization-focused
Most assessment begins with the question, “Who will use the evidence that is gathered, and for what purpose?”
Staff and faculty conducting assessments are encouraged to focus on how they plan to use findings to adjust curriculum requirements, program or course content, student assignments, instructional practices, or their work with and support of students.
Transparent
While St. Olaf faculty, staff, and students are the principal “users” of assessment results, we make our findings readily available to the St. Olaf Board of Regents and to the larger community as well.
The most recent findings from our institutional-level surveys and assessment projects are publicly-accessible on the IE&A website (under “What We Know About…”) or the Academic Assessment Committee website.
Image credits from The Noun Project: student by Ladalle CS; Mission by Nithinan Tatah; Equity by Laura Amaya; decision by Template; window by Joel Bryant; others are open-source
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