More people have commented to me (SV) about the joke I made at our Faculty Business Meeting at the start of the semester than about my reminder regarding departmental assessment. Last semester each department chair classified their department in terms of its progress on assessment. We have used the NCA rubric of Level I, Level II, and Level III as our classification scheme. On page 8 is a brief description of each of the levels, which we also printed in the last issue of the Assessment Newsletter last academic year:

Level I: Learning goals or objectives are either vague or absent; assessment plan not developed or implemented; direct measures of student learning beyond the classroom level not being collected or analyzed.

Level II: Assessment plans are well underway but not necessarily fully implemented; assessment data are not yet used to drive curricular improvement or departmental planning.

Level III: Assessment plans fully implemented; assessment data used to drive curricular improvement; results of assessment used to drive departmental planning.

Interim Provost Miller has given the academic division the charge to have all departments classified as Level III by the time the NCA site visit takes place during Fall semester 2003. I encourage departments to contact members of the Assessment Committee to talk about ideas you have for assessment in your department.