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| hope college > assessment |
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The Hope College Assessment Plan was adopted by the Academic Affairs Board in April 1994. This plan was considered to be an adequate plan by the consultant-evaluators from the North Central Association during their decennial visit in 1994. Excerpts from the plan are presented below. The full text can be viewed on the Registrar's Office website or a hard copy can be received by e-mailing huisken@hope.edu. Excerpts from "A Plan for the Assessment
of ASSESSMENT AND INSTITUTIONAL MISSION Assessment has been defined by Hope College as "a tool for enhancing students' academic, social, and spiritual development." The first step is the clear articulation of the goals of a department, program, or administrative unit. These goals need to be related to the mission statement of Hope College for, in the final analysis, the college its faculty, staff, students, and trustees want to know to what extent the mission of the college is being accomplished. The ultimate goal is to determine whether its institutional mission is being fulfilled.
As related to institutional mission, then, assessment will focus on the term excellence in this mission statement. And the specific focus of the assessment program will be to determine what this term excellence means when we talk about student academic achievement. The assessment program will enable the college to look not only at the process of education but also at the product of education its students to see if what we produce can indeed be called excellent. The focus will be on outcomes what it is that we expect Hope College students to know and to be able to do; and the emphasis will be on quality what standards are to be met so that we can rightfully claim excellence not only for our students but also for the academic and non-academic programs we offer.
In the articulation of goals, objectives, and intended outcomes, academic and non-academic departments will necessarily be setting standards by which students and programs will be measured. To the extent, then, that our students meet these standards will we be able to claim excellence. It will be the burden of the assessment program to determine if these standards of excellence are being met.
The assessment program will not only look internally at its current programs and current students to evaluate its excellence, but will also continue to look for external evaluations and assessments and evidence of excellence.
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