3 Ways to Infuse Assessment Capacity into Your Work in Student Affairs

This morning, @JChase_ shared some thoughts on why some people in student affairs don't engage in assessment here. He wrapped up his post with:

"So, let’s revisit the common objections [to doing assessment]:

1. Competence - step by step guides on doing assessments are available.  If you don’t know, go find them, or go find a friend that knows how to Google things.
2. Time - doing assessments can actually SAVE you time
3. Lack of interest - You should care about this stuff.  It’ll make you better at your job.  You’re not in this field because you don’t care about it."

After reading and reflecting on Jeff's post, I decided to pull some thoughts together, and offer my own take with this post. There are three things everyone in student affairs can do to work on building assessment capacity in their positions, and also for their own professional development.

1. Take Jeff's advice, on all three of his suggestions.

• You can learn about assessment from so many sources: books, journal articles, newsletters, conferences, student affairs division websites, and colleagues on Twitter. I started my assessment learning by telling the director of residence life that I wanted to learn about assessment. That led me to conferences focused on assessment.
• Take a good look at how you spend your day. Are there things you can delegate or can be assigned elsewhere to free up an hour a week for you to commit to assessment?
• Assessment is becoming the key to longevity in our field. We all have to be able to speak about the work we do from a standpoint that is informed by data, not just anecdotes of superstar student leaders.

2. If you're spending time on Twitter, are you using it to build your Personal Learning Network (PLN) to help develop assessment competence? There are so many people willing to answer questions and even consult on assessment efforts that you should never have to feel like you're in it alone.

3. Answer the questions below. After you identify what you need to know, and you can answer the other three questions, you've taken the first step toward assessment and evaluation in student affairs.

• What do I need to know?
• Why do I need to know this?
• What kind of data will I need?
• Where can I find the data?

Ultimately, I want people in the field who shy away from assessment to recognize that they can build assessment capacity in their positions, and in themselves. Just like anything else, growth takes initiative.

In a future post, I will offer some thoughts on developing assessment competence, moving from beginner to advanced, as outlined in the NASPA/ACPA Professional Competencies.