Common Assessment Practices

It is perhaps a truism to say that what constitutes good practice in assessing Women’s Studies is good assessment practice in general. For example, in Students at the Center, Pat Hutchings summarizes key questions for assessment that would work well for almost any discipline:

• What do the courses and instruction we provide add up to for students?
  
• What do our students know and what can they do?
  
• Are they learning what we think we are teaching?
  
• Does their achievement match what our degrees imply?
  
• How do we know that and ensure that?
  
• How can the quantity and quality of student learning be improved? (18)

Jack Meacham, Chair of Psychology at SUNY-Buffalo has written an excellent brief guide to assessing multicultural courses. “Assessing Diversity Courses: Tips and Tools” is sensitive to some of the distinguishing features of such courses. For example, he suggests frequent informal assessments so instructors can gauge what and whether silent students are learning. He offers statements that can be included in standard course evaluation documents so instructors can understand how students use what they learn about multiculturalism, and he suggests a strategy which I have found successful with graduate students—making assessment a course project, involving students in designing strategies for evaluating the class.

Meacham’s “tips and tools” are applicable to Women’s Studies courses, just as the questions posed by Pat Hutchings remain pertinent today. A review of current assessment plans and reports (for web addresses, see the list of plans in Appendix B) reveals that the range of techniques adopted consists primarily of those used by the schools participating in The Courage to Question study as well as some of the strategies recommended by Meacham.

See Table 4. Women’s Studies assessment strategies

As course software programs such as Blackboard become increasingly prevalent, Women’s Studies programs may consider allowing faculty to submit individual course sites for review as if they were teaching portfolios. Do assignments and handouts reflect course goals? If there is a discussion area, do student comments reflect learning of key concepts? Moreover, many other academic programs are beginning to survey alumni employers with the graduates’ consent. This approach would be helpful in finding out exactly which of the skills learned in Women’s Studies courses are most beneficial in the workplace.

Table 4. Women’s Studies assessment strategies