This study presents data from 122 department chair at more than 100 colleges, predominantly in the USA and Canada, about how they view their role and the general role of faculty in student assessment efforts. The report gives detailed data on the use of curriculum mapping, rubrics and competency based courses. In an open ended question, chair discuss what their departments have been doing to enhance the student assessment effort at their institutions. In addition, the study presents their opinion on the level of cooperation among academic departments and various assessment related departments and efforts of the college or university.
Just a few of the 57-page report’s many findings are that:
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Broken out by academic field, curriculum mapping was by far the most pervasive in engineering and mathematics followed by the visual arts.
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A plurality of 34.3% of department chair interviewed say that assessment efforts at their institution are primarily led by faculty rather than by the administration or joint faculty/administration efforts.
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Cooperation among academic department chair and college administration departments involved in the student assessment effort were much better among department chair who had served at least five years.
Data in the report is broken out by a broad range of institutional and personal chair variables, including country, type, size, tuition level and public/private status of the college or university, and – for chairs themselves -- by age, gender, academic discipline, years served as chair, and number of faculty in the department.