Accreditation & assessment

Accreditation

Assessment

The mission of the Outcomes Assessment Committee is to facilitate Sandburg’s mission by providing structure and training for assessment, a support system for analyzing and interpreting data, and a means of communicating assessment results to the college’s stakeholders. 

View the assessment plan.

History

Sandburg has worked on enhancing the assessment process and implementing updated assessment practices since 1995. A noteworthy paradigm shift occurred in assessment circa 2009 — one that emphasized a student-centered approach rather than a teacher-centered one. In other words, learning outcomes drive the assessment and content for courses. The Assessment Committee changed its name to the Outcomes Assessment Committee in 2011, to signify this shift and has since then facilitated and used an outcomes-based approach to assessment.

The dominant trend of the assessment process at Sandburg is that assessment is a continuous process, one that never pauses and is perpetually improved by all stakeholders.

To see a more topical breakdown of assessment activities at Sandburg, view the assessment timeline.

Curricular assessment

A curricular experience occurs when students apply a Sandburg GEO (general education outcome) inside the classroom. Sandburg faculty use the outcomes assessment philosophy to collect data and make changes at the classroom, course and departmental levels.

Outcomes assessment is a student-centered approach driven by the students' efforts to meet course objectives and is a continuous process that uses set criteria to measure students' successes. This chart further explains the four primary characteristics in outcomes assessment and is constructed with information from Rhodes University (2012):

Outcomes-based assessments:

• Focus on students’ final products.
• Are driven by students’ applications of course content.
• Are continuous to understand where students are.
• Use evaluative techniques to measure student work against set criteria.

Outcomes-based assessments aren't:

• Focused on pedagogy.
• Driven by course content.
• Using evaluative techniques that measure student work against other student work.

Co-curricular assessment

A co-curricular experience occurs when students apply a Sandburg GEO (general education outcome) outside the classroom. Sandburg faculty and staff submit either an internal assessment form or a program review mandated by ICCB (Illinois Community College Board) to assess these activities.

Learn more about the differentiation of co-curricular assessment reporting.

Data

The Annual Summary Report highlights significant assessment changes and trends, as well as current/ongoing assessment activities, during the academic year outlined. This report is shared with the faculty at the first regularly scheduled Faculty Assembly and the board of trustees at the November board meeting. Additionally, it's shared here for all stakeholders: