This summer is filled with excitement with all of the happenings under the umbrella of “assessment” at the Neag School of Education. This includes:

• Planning to distribute the Common Entrance surveys for new candidates in four of our programs – IB/M and TCPCG Teacher Education, School Counseling, School Psychology, and UCAPP programs.
• Organizing the third annual summer forum for K-12 school staff entitled, “Transition to the Connecticut State Standards and System of Assessments.” The Assessment Office is facilitating the Connecticut State Department of Education and the Neag School of Education is co-sponsoring this forum August 13 and 14. For the third year in a row, we are anticipating a “sell-out” crowd.
• Designing the second generation of our assessment website. The modified site, http://neag.uconn.edu/assessment/, will display all assessment-related information including our 79 reports completed in 2011-2012. Among these reports that may be of interest to you are: Investigating Interest in the Dual Degree: Survey Results from Alumni and Students; Teacher Education: Employer Survey of Principals Employing Neag Teachers; Neag School of Education 2012 Employer Report: A Look at What Superintendents Say Regarding Teachers, School Counselors, School Psychologists, and Administrators Educated in the Neag School of Education

Appreciation is given to the Neag School of Connecticut Assessment Committee that provided insight for this design and to Jamison Judd for assisting with getting the site up-and-running. By the way, this committee helped to formulize the vision and mission for “assessment.” The vision is:

The Neag School of Education’s will be recognized as having an Office of Assessment whose vision is to serve as a national model of excellence, embracing and promoting an assessment culture characterized by evidence-based decisions, with the intended purpose of providing a more challenging, learner-centered academic community that advances knowledge and improves vitality in all aspects of the School. 

This committee was instrumental in establishing the mission.

The Office of Assessment is an innovative, supportive unit that:

• Enhances the school’s assessment culture by encouraging evidence-based decisions which may advance knowledge, improve teaching, and transform learning.
• Focuses its efforts on providing support, especially for accreditation purposes, by providing annual external and internal reports, facilitating survey and evaluation implementation, conducting assessment and program evaluation research, and implementing the strategic initiative known as Spotlight on Assessment.
• Serves the School and the University in committee work, while also being the hub with regional, state and national assessment communities.

Today, all stakeholders – such as the alumni – need to be actively involved with assessment.  That is why the Office of Assessment works diligently with the dean, associate dean, department chairs, directors, program leaders, other administrators, faculty, staff, students, and key stakeholders in the School and the University. Through assessment, we can determine what works well in a program and where fine-tuning is needed. For example, if you are an alumnus from the IB/M and TCPCG Teacher Education, School Counseling, School Psychology, and UCAPP programs, this fall you will be asked to complete a survey that will provide us with invaluable feedback. More details coming. Together, with assessment, all of us can make a difference.