Volume 9, No. 1    Published by Assessment Resource Office, Eastern New Mexico University Date:   1-28-99

Moratorium on Non-Instructional Assessment Plan Reports


Upon recommendation of the Assessment Resource Office (ARO), the President and his core staff have approved a modification to the assessment reporting cycle for non-instructional units. That modification is as follows:

• 1997-98 assessment data, which was due November 6, 1998, must be reported as required by A Proposal for Institutional Effectiveness: Outcomes Assessment Plans for Non-Instructional Areas.

• Upon receipt of the 1997-98 data, there will be a moratorium on data reporting for one year (AY 1998-99), providing time for review, study, and revision of each unit’s Outcomes Assessment Plan.

• During the moratorium, the ARO will provide assistance to those units with plans needing revision/modification.

• During AY 1998-99, the ARO will continue to conduct campus-wide assessment of selected non-instructional services.

• The non-instructional assessment reporting cycle will resume with AY 1999-2000. Beginning with AY 1999-2000 data, reports for all units (non-instructional and academic) will be due in June of the Academic Year under review, rather than November of the following Academic Year.

These modifications were made because many administrative units have expressed interest in modifying their plan. The ARO understands that Eastern, though a leader in assessment, is still in the early stages of non-instructional assessment, and agrees that our two years of reporting reveal that some plans need revision in order to become more effective. It is hoped that the moratorium will enable non-instructional units ample time to review their assessment techniques and revise their plans for more effective assessment. -Larry Smith

CAAP Revisited


The results of the Fall 1998 administration of the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP), which measures general education knowledge in five subject matter areas and which has been administered to rising Juniors at Eastern each semester for five years, are summarized in the aggregate on the following pages. Additionally, we have summarized the results over the five years as compared to the mean scores of all other colleges and universities which administer the CAAP.

Readers will no doubt note that Eastern’s aggregate scores have remained below the national scores in each of the five areas. The Assessment Resource Office (ARO) and the Assessment Committee have discussed those results extensively. Low scores might be explained by the fact that Eastern is an “open enrollment” university, thus having students that may not be as well prepared for college study as many of the cohort CAAP-administering institutions. At least to some degree, the success of our graduating seniors in discipline specific national tests tends to refute that explanation.

However, there may be other explanations. In an informal study, the ARO has determined that few, if any, other institutions administer all five parts of the CAAP in any one semester to a broad base of students. Indeed, some only administer one or two sections to a very narrow segment of their students. Also, while Eastern provides no incentive to students to perform well on the CAAP (there is no reward for doing well and doing poorly has no punitive consequence), other institutions do have such incentives.

We found no other institution that administered all five parts in “one sitting.” As this DATAWave rolls off the press, the ARO will be presenting to the Assessment Committee a proposal for modification of the manner in which we administer the CAAP. It is felt that such modification is necessary in order to determine the efficacy of the CAAP in determining the placement of our students in comparison with the national norms.

CAAP FALL 1998

On October 7, 1998, 191 students from ENMU participated in the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP). Of these students, 67 (35%) were male and 124 (65%) female; 131 (69%) were native students and 59 (31%) were transfers (one student did not respond). Fifty-four students (28%) were classified as juniors and 136 (72%) as sophomores (one student did not respond).

Students were asked their future educational plans. One hundred seventy-five (92%) students responded that they would return to Eastern, ten (5%) plan to transfer to another school, and six (3%) have other plans.

Below are self-reported responses of students’ age and GPA:

                          AGE              

 

 

     GPA

 

                   18 and under             

4

                                               

Below 2.00                

2

                   19-20

97

 

2.01-2.50

33

                    21-25

66

 

2.51-3.00

56

                    26-30

8

 

3.01-3.50

52

                    31-39

9

 

3.51 and above

44

                    40 and over

7

 

no response

4

Scores and subscores for the Fall 1998 administration of the CAAP

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Five Years of CAAP

The CAAP has been administered at Eastern since the fall of 1993 to over 2,000 students. Below, and continuing on the next page, is a chart of CAAP scores since Fall 1993. (In AY93-94, scores for Fall 1993 and Spring 1994 were combined.)

*In AY93-94, scores for fall and spring were combined.