1. Minutes of the Ninth AMCOA Meeting, March 26, 2012
Prepared by Kerry McNally
Host Campus: Bunker Hill Community College
I. Attendance
The ninth AMCOA meeting was hosted by Bunker Hill Community College
(BHCC) from 10:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. on March 26, 2012. Representatives from
22 institutions attended the meeting (See list in Appendix A), and Peggy Maki,
Consultant under the Davis Educational Foundation Grant awarded to the
Department of Higher Education, opened and chaired the meeting.
Peggy thanked BHCC for hosting the meeting.
II. Welcome: Vice President of Academic Affairs & Student Services James F.
Canniff, Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC)
Vice President James F. Canniff welcomed AMCOA Team members to BHCC
and this month’s working session focused on scoring student work that
demonstrates critical thinking. He scanned the list of participants and
commented on the broad representation of faculty coming together over the
most critical of issues – assessment. He was happy that BHCC could host this
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2. session and praised the AMCOA members and faculty for taking the time to
attend this meeting. Faculty and assessment personnel will help student
learning. This is not a fad; it is not going away. AMCOA and SLOAP (Student
Learning Outcomes Assessment Project) at BHCC are programs grounded on
faculty leadership. We need to think about rubrics and methodology. We
need more work in the disciplines, and we are progressing. We have
wonderful leadership from the DHE. Peggy Maki visited all the schools in the
Massachusetts Public Higher Education system, and it is great to have her
leadership and expertise.
Dr. Canniff said that he came to BHCC from New York, where faculty feared
“the test.” He said: “We cannot let that happen here. The faculty cannot let
that happen. The faculty have to be leading this process of developing
rational rubrics for student assessment and improved student learning.
Welcome and thank you.”
III. Initial Discussion about Dates and Times and Foci for Four AMCOA Meetings in
2012-2013, Three Conferences, and Identification of Areas of Assessment You Are
Willing to Address for Campus Visits or Assessment Days: Bonnie Orcutt and
Peggy Maki
A. Survey Monkey
Peggy Maki said that Mo Melvin Sowa created an electronic survey in Survey
Monkey to find out which dates would be best for meetings and conferences
next year. Response was very light; there were only 14 replies, which is too
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3. small to make a consensus. The survey will be kept open. Peggy asked the
Team to please reply to it by April 20th
, and then she will report the results to
the Team at the May meeting.
B. Form to Identify Areas of Expertise for Campuses
Peggy distributed a rough draft of recommendations, resources, and thorny
issues that Bonnie Orcutt assembled based on AMCOA team members listing
potential ideas. Bonnie asked that people think of teams that might visit
campuses; alternatively, she can look at responses and suggest teams. Since
there were no suggestions for changes from the group at the meeting, Bonnie
will prepare a form to send out to AMCOA team members asking them to
identify their areas of expertise. This form should be returned to her by April
20th
.
C. Initial Plans for Next Academic Year’s Meetings
Peggy is working with Worcester State University and Framingham State
University to have them serve as centralized locations for next year’s AMCOA
meetings. In the Survey Monkey responses she has seen, Mondays and
Fridays are the most open days to hold meetings and conferences among the
people who responded. She again emphasized that team members should
respond to the survey by April 20th
.
IV. Update on the Fourth Statewide Assessment Conference: Jim Gubbins
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4. Jim Gubbins announced that the electronic registration site for the April 23rd
AMCOA Conference at UMass Boston is open and requested that people
register. He said that there would be two sets of five presentations in the
morning and that the campuses that received funding for assessment
experiments would report on a panel to the full conference in the afternoon.
His understanding is that all or a large number of the community college
presidents plan to attend. The Boston Globe may also be there to report on
the event. Pat Crosson will close the conference with a talk on “The year that
Lies Ahead.” There are 200 seats available in the Ballroom at UMass Boston’s
Campus Center for conference attendees and free parking for the first 100
registrants. He again reminded presenters, as well as attendees, to register.
V. Summaries of Two Assessment Experiments: Ellen Wentland, Associate Dean of
Academic & Institutional Effectiveness, Northern Essex Community College, and
Kristina Bendikas, Associate Dean for Assessment and Planning, Massachusetts
College of Liberal Arts
Elise Martin from Middlesex Community College was on the Agenda to present
this report, but was not able to attend. Ellen Wentland from Northern Essex
Community College, one of the other campuses participating in the
experiment, agreed to speak about their progress.
“Using Assessment to Develop Interdisciplinary Writing Standards Across
College Levels: A Collaborative Model for Two- and Four- Year Institutions”
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5. The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML along with two feeder
community colleges, Middlesex Community College (MBCC), and Northern
Essex Community College (NECC), are collaborating on an assessment
experiment that focuses on transfers from 2-year schools to UML, particularly
in the three majors of Criminal Justice, Ecology, and Business based on scoring
of students’ written work. There might be some variation in outcomes
depending on the program, but they are comparing students from the same
majors. NECC and MBCC are looking at students with 15-29 credits at the
end of the first year, and 45-59 credits at the end of the second year. UML
will look at students with the same credit-hour levels and majors, but also the
junior year students.
Using the VALUE rubrics on an existing assignment, institutions are reviewing
students with the same credit hours. When the student work samples are
used, the raters will not know which school or major is involved, although
they may be able to guess the major by the subject matter of the paper.
The institutions are now having a norming session this week to look at the
rubric and adjust it. Once there is some consensus on the rubric, they can
proceed to rate the work product. The goal is that no matter the major,
faculty and administrators can establish norms for particular credit hours and
set standards for end of first year and second year writing performance with
respect to skills achievement of University students.
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6. “Writing Assessment Experiment: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts,
Berkshire Community College”
Faculty from Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) and Berkshire
Community College (BCC) have been working with Dr. Kathleen Yancey, a
nationally known expert in college writing, to develop scoring guides for
written communication at the sophomore/AA level and for the
senior/bachelor’s level. Both groups will review student artifacts, as well as
NSSE/CCSSE data, and determine action steps for coordinating writing
expectations within their own institutions, and increasing student success in
writing for those that transfer. The experiment also includes the creation of
an intranet or internet sites at MCLA and BCC where students can go to access
and view the writing rubrics and models of student work.
Kristina Bendikas was on the Agenda to speak about this experiment, but did
not arrive from Western Massachusetts until later in the meeting, so she was
not able to present her report. However, she has given us a written update
below:
On February 28 each of the taskforces (MCLA-BCC and MCLA) worked for a
half-day with Dr. Kathleen Yancey on determining values that would be
incorporated into a rubric for the assessment. Members reviewed samples of
student work and discussed the merits of criteria and formats for their scoring
guides. There was more agreement in the MCLA-BCC group than in the MCLA
group where disciplinary perspectives came into play. Each of the taskforces
have meetings scheduled to further develop their rubrics (MCLA on March 27,
MCLA-BCC on April 2) while the samples are being collected.
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7. VI. Summary of February Worksheets (posted on Yammer as of March 12, 2012)
Peggy Maki summarized the worksheets from the February 29th
workshop on
written communications. These summaries were posted on Yammer on
March 12, 2012.
Some of her findings are:
• Many people said that there should be a “0” column, which Peggy said
was a good idea and could easily be incorporated.
• The institutional rubrics are much more specific whereas the VALUE
rubric is a meta-rubric. Perhaps as we continue to use the VALUE
rubric, we may need to train raters with the meta-rubric supported by
more detail about the criteria encompassed within each of the VALUE
components.
• Having consulted with AAC&U about the typical audience for student
work that we score, Peggy reported that AAC&U said that audience
should be “an educated person walking down the street” because we
are assessing at the level of general education. Further, AAC&U stated
that disciplines are refining or adapting the writing VALUE rubric based
on a more in-depth disciplinary assessment of student work.
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8. • The results of the writing workshop indicate that people scored papers
similarly—at the lower end of performance based on the VALUE rubric
and even on the institutional rubrics used.
Tom Curley, Berkshire Community College, said that his school is interested in
the 2nd
level, but they are also looking at the 4th
level. At the 4th
level they
look more rigorously at ability to write, etc.
VII. May 1 AMCOA Meeting at Framingham State University
Regarding the May 1st
Meeting at Framingham State University, Peggy Maki
announced that she is inviting six to eight teams with representatives from
different campuses to speak on how they are assessing Quantitative
Reasoning. This will create a good grounding on how Quantitative Reasoning
is being evaluated on the campuses. She asked Team members to volunteer
themselves for this panel discussion. She said that the Team can further
discuss this topic in the fall. At issue is reaching agreement about what we
are seeking as evidence of QR in exit-level work. Further, she stated that she
intends to invite a representative from AAC&U to meet with the AMCOA team
in Fall, 2012.
At the May 1st
Meeting Pat Crosson will discuss with the Team the year ahead
regarding the Davis Grant.
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9. Finally, there will be some formal planning for next year at the May 1st
meeting.
VIII. Introduction of Faculty Participating in Today’s Working Session and Group
Leaders; Orientation to Today’s Working Session Focused on Assessing Exit-Level
Critical Thinking: Peggy Maki
Peggy reviewed AAC&U’s Critical Thinking (CT) VALUE rubric in preparation for
scoring student work at the meeting. She noted that numerous teams
composed of both four-year and two-year faculty and other educators were
involved over two years in reaching consensus about the criteria included in
the CT rubric. The rubric addresses the range of thinking that is involved in
CT, including analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.
Once AMCOA team members and invited faculty scored a student example,
Natalie Oliveri, BHCC, distributed and described the scoring rubric developed
at BHCC; then, team members applied that to the same sample they scored
using the CT VALUE rubric.
Peggy said that she will summarize results of scoring student work using both
the VALUE and the BHCC CT rubric and post the results on Yammer for the
Team. Going forward Peggy will be seeking input from faculty and
assessment professionals on the campuses.
Peggy introduced the group leaders and assigned participants to groups:
Group 1: Lisa Plantefaber, Westfield State University, served as Group Leader
Bill Berry, Cape Cod Community College
May Callahan, Northern Essex Community College
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10. John Cunningham, University of Massachusetts Presidents’ Office
Kate McLaren, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Tom Curley, Berkshire Community College
Group 2: Ellen Zimmerman, Framingham State University, served as Group
Leader
Kate Finnegan, Greenfield Community College
Peter Johnston, Massasoit Community College
Holly Noun, Westfield State University
Tom Curley, Berkshire Community College
Martha Stassen, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Group 3: Susan Chang, Framingham State University, served as Group Leader
Mark Patrick, Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Charles Prescott, Berkshire Community College
Dawne Spangler, North Shore Community College
Natalie Oliveri, Bunker Hill Community College
Donna Kuizenga, University of Massachusetts Boston
Group 4: Bonnie Orcutt, Worcester State University, served as Group Leader
Severin Kitanov, Salem State University
Elizabeth Johnston O’Connor, Cape Cod Community College
John McColgan, Roxbury Community College
Ruth Slotnick, Mount Wachusett Community College
Judy Raper, Greenfield Community College
Paula Haines, University of Massachusetts Lowell
Group 5: Yves Salomon-Fernandez, MassBay Community College, served as
Group Leader
Kristina Bendikas, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Javad Moulai, Roxbury Community College
Susan Taylor, Mount Wachusett Community College
Ellen Wentland, Northern Essex Community College
David Leavitt, Bunker Hill Community College
Mary Fowler, Worcester State University
Group 6: Carol Lerch, Worcester State University, served as Group Leader
Stephen Sutherland, Presenter of UMass Boston Rubric
Tim McLaughlin, Bunker Hill Community College
Judy Turcotte, Holyoke Community College
Margaret Stephenson, Berkshire Community College
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11. Saradha Ramesh , North Shore Community College
James Gubbins, Salem State University
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12. Appendix A: Institutions Represented at the AMCOA March 26th
Meeting:
Berkshire Community College
Bunker Hill Community College
Cape Cod Community College
Fitchburg State University
Framingham State University
Greenfield Community College
Holyoke Community College
Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Massasoit Community College
MassBay Community College
Mount Wachusett Community College
North Shore Community College
Northern Essex Community College
Roxbury Community College
Salem State University
University of Massachusetts Amherst
University of Massachusetts Boston
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13. University of Massachusetts Lowell
University of Massachusetts President’s Office
Westfield State University
Worcester State University
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