As part of my latest order of books, I picked up Outcomes-Based Academic and Co-Curricular Program Review by Marilee J. Bresciani. I know I’ve been reading lots of assessment-related books recently, and the reason for that is I am hoping to review many of the current residence life practices at my college over the summer to ensure that we are offering the best possible experience to our students.
This book begins with the following statement:
Rather than telling readers how to conduct assessment, I have focused on institutions that are actively engaged in systematic evaluation of student learning and development, gathering meaningful data about how to improve student learning.
This is something I appreciated, as I know that ‘one size fits all’ models typically do not work. As promised, the author spends the majority of the book providing examples of different practices currently in place at various institutions. Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of “60% of schools do this” or “87% of schools agree that” which can become a bit tedious for readers.
One of the best parts of the book is the extensive Appendices at the end of the text, all providing examples and/or links to school/program websites to be used as resources for developing and implementing an outcomes-based assessment program.
Though reading the book cover-to-cover wasn’t necessarily that helpful (on the surface), I do look forward to coming back to this book later when I am in the process of conducting my own assessments in order to help guide my own practice.
Nicole's Reads 