• the strategic planning cycle at the College and subsidiary levels
• the College-wide assessment of educational objectives focused on activities of the College-Wide Assessment Committee
• administrative assessments, which evaluate co-curricular and support service effectiveness
• external assessments by accreditation associations and the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education

The Strategic Planning Council also asked each area of the College to prepare a plan and to present it to the Council for review and acceptance. Each area returns to the Council every two years to provide a report on the implementation of that plan. The School of Business was the first unit to receive approval of its plan (1994). Since then the Council has approved plans for the School of Education, School of Nursing, Graduate School, Student Life, School of Arts and Sciences, School of Business 1998-2003, and Institutional Advancement. The Council has also heard progress reports on planning and implementation.

The Strategic Planning process described above has been through at least one full cycle at each level of organization, and each revised plan encompasses an evaluation of the success in achieving the goals of the previous iteration. For instance, the most recent review of the All-College Strategic Plan noted that the previous plan was not sufficiently linked to the College budgeting process. The new All-College Strategic Plan will include specific objectives and action items, which will bring the plan into more realistic synchrony with available resources.

Each School has a strategic plan which has been modified one or more times over the past five years. The School of Arts and Sciences has partially achieved its objective of developing more interdisciplinary curricula for its students, but in strategic reviews recognizes that more progress must be made in providing workload recognition for faculty who devote their energies into team-taught courses and interdisciplinary program development. The School of Business used dynamic linkages among its strategic goals and objectives, resources, capabilities and assessment measurements (GORCA GRID) to plot needed actions and progress.

In the School of Arts and Sciences, each department reviews its strategic plan annually and appends assessments of progress towards goals to their annual reports. The Dean reviews these department reports when making recommendations for personnel, space, equipment, and other resource allocations.

Significant progress in technology acquisition and networking has been made in the past few years, in part because all strategic plans (College-wide, school, department, etc.) noted the need for improving technology in support of the teaching and learning process. As a result, all full-time faculty have desk computers, more “smart” classrooms and computer laboratories are available, more courses are using Internet/Web page formats for delivery and the College is offering its first full curriculum (Fire Science Administration) via PictureTel in partnership with Bridgewater State College. This technological growth is not likely to have occurred without the near unanimity of the strategic planning units. A comparison of the successive iterations of the strategic plans will show the importance of this process in evaluation at the College.

The Division of Student Life also has an annual strategic planning process that includes an ongoing assessment of current student needs and programmatic initiatives as well as department goals and objectives. Of note is the recent assessment and resulting plan for a new structure to identify and enhance the facilitation of academic and non-academic internships through Career Services. Similarly, the annual Quality of Life Survey in Residence Life impacts program planning within the living-learning environments at the College.

The Salem State College Assistance Corporation holds an annual retreat to reassess its goals and objectives. This year it was noted that the development of the Central Campus Entrepreneurial Park was progressing well but perhaps with not enough attention to supporting local economic growth. As a result, one of the criteria for the SSCAC appointment of a new Executive Director was the ability to seek park tenants who will add to the economic base of the Salem area. Further, the Director and the Salem State College School Deans are being asked to be more sensitive to providing more applied learning opportunities and internships for Salem State College students with the Enterprise Center business partners.

The English Composition Assessment Project was begun in 1996 with the initial goal of improving the overall writing curriculum and the writing expertise of our students. The Composition Assessment Committee and the English Department have developed a rubric for intensive portfolio review of the work of students in all of the freshman writing courses to identify what works best to improve student writing. One result of this project was that the Committee recommended and the Administration approved the reduction in size of composition classes from 25 to 15 students. In addition, the project results supported the need for a Coordinator of the Freshman Writing Program, a position which has been filled effective September 2000. The key conclusions of this committee’s continuing work are:

• Identification of the need to calibrate goals in first-year writing courses.
• Reaching consensus that an upper division writing course, which builds on the skills of the first-year program, needs to be created and required of all students.
• Recognition of the need for deeper connections among departments on issues of writing.
• Verifying that portfolio exit testing of writing would be the best assessment of what the graduating student has to offer.

In the third year of the study, the Composition Assessment Committee had an on-site review of the study by its original consultant, who also made suggestions to the English Department faculty. The Committee revised the parameters of the study and the Department met with a composition specialist in order to begin establishing a student outcomes statement for composition. At the recommendation of the consultant, the faculty continue to meet monthly to work on the statement.

Clearly, this composition assessment project is addressing major core learning outcomes.

The Language Intensive Interdisciplinary Program (LIIP) for non-native English-speaking freshmen assessed the success of their activities by collecting (in 1996) both qualitative and quantitative evidence in the form of interviews, questionnaires and student grades. The data was analyzed to determine whether the program actually achieved its objectives of promoting leadership, stressing critical thinking, and creating programs emphasizing collaborative learning using teaching teams.

The program was found to improve retention and success of sophomores, but more work needed to be done to continue support of community and curriculum offerings for upper class participants in the program. The LIIP Mentoring Program has been revised with this assessment in mind.

The Community Service Corps and Service Learning Program assesses program successes and challenges through using faculty evaluations of service learning projects and review by a multi-segment steering committee. Based on steering committee recommendation, the focus of their supporting grant was shifted from leadership exclusively in the Education Department to extend more directly within interdisciplinary academic programs.

The School of Business has participated in EBI benchmarking assessment studies during the last three years (1997, 1998 and 1999). These surveys evaluate undergraduate and MBA programs in addition to providing faculty satisfaction and alumni rankings.

The goals of the Aquaculture Program include improving economic status of the fishing community of the Cape Ann-North Shore region, using aquaculture as a K-12 interdisciplinary science teaching tool and training aquaculture professionals through the baccalaureate degree and certificate programs. Program officials have regular evaluatory meetings with the Northeastern Massachusetts Aquaculture Center Advisory Committee and have follow-up reports from participants in all teacher workshops. Aquaculture program coordinators visit local schools to assure their programs are actually improving student learning. The renewal of grants from the Seaport Bond Council and Fishermen and Families Assistance Center indicate the Aquaculture program is meeting community economic improvement goals.

Other evaluation mechanisms that are used to assess the educational success of the College’s programs include:

• Individual assessment of students by faculty as stipulated in course syllabi. (See Standard IV and workroom files.)
• Student evaluation of faculty and personnel evaluation of teaching effectiveness as stipulated in the MSCA/Board of Higher Education Agreements.
• Other departmental assessment programs such as the Education Department’s data driven program evaluation and its student performance assessment.
• Use of external juries to review student performance such as the continuation in program review for The Bachelor of Fine Arts—Theatre students and portfolio review for Communications students.
• The Small Business Institute student consulting projects are evaluated at the end of the semester by the client.

Please see workroom for details on these and other educational assessment processes being utilized at the College.

There are several assessment tools used by administrative offices to determine the effectiveness of co-curricula and administrative programs in supporting educational goals. These include:

• State mandated use of Accuplacer assessment of reading and mathematics skills and writing sample assessment of entering freshmen
• Enrollment management study of the relationship among entry assessment scores, high school GPA and first year performance
• Career Services: Undergraduate Destination Survey
• Student Life Office – Continuing CIRP study of attitudes of first year class, Orientation Survey, Campus Center Survey,Residence Life Quality of Life Survey, Multicultural Survey
• Program evaluation and decisions on future artistic programs by the Center for Creative and Performing Arts to assure offering of a broad Arts spectrum to the people of the region
• Quantitative and qualitative assessment of the Enterprise Center activities by the Salem State Assistance Corporation
• Office of Fiscal Affairs—audit process
• Comprehensive market research survey of stakeholders in the region for use in multiple College planning activities

Descriptions of these and other administrative assessments are on file in the workroom.

External assessments by accrediting organizations and Massachusetts Board of Higher Education

Please see catalog for list of accreditations, which require self studies and site visits on a regular basis. The most recent accreditation reports, responses and accreditation decisions are on file in the workroom.

The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education undertakes system-wide reviews of selected academic fields or program areas to become better informed on academic planning issues or in response to particular concerns. In 1999, a system-wide review of all Computer and Information Science programs was conducted to determine if those programs were meeting State workforce needs and standards and to determine how public higher education can best meet the need and demand for computer-related degree programs. In 1998-99, the Board of Higher Education reviewed all Chemistry major programs in response to concerns about low enrollments in these programs. Likewise, the Salem State College Economics program was reviewed by the Board of Higher Education because the major showed declining enrollments. Reviews of this sort require substantial introspection, preparation of a self-study, and evaluative commentary from outside the immediate College.

All of these assessment efforts contribute to the College’s ongoing ability “to provide for its students a foundation for knowledge and scholarship, to refine the teaching-learning process, and to serve as a center for entrepreneurial solutions designed to strengthen the region’s cultural, environmental and economic character”

Fiscal austerity stemming from Board of Higher Education policies has forced the College to be more strategic about the allocation of revenues. Reductions in tuition have made Salem State College more dependent upon student fees and external resources such as grants. Recognizing that changing admissions policies would have an impact on budget, the College did not plan adequately and was caught with sudden budget cuts in the Fall 1999. The College has not adequately incorporated data analysis or ongoing environmental scanning into the planning process. Further, it has not adequately linked the long-term goals of new programs with the budget process. The cycles of contract negotiations (especially MSCA) affect the planning process negatively when governance is disrupted.

The planning process works best at the departmental level where there is a high level of specificity. It has helped departments improve their focus and set priorities. Many departments have had success in revising their curriculum. The English Composition Assessment Project is one example of evaluation activities which systematically inform institutional planning. As a result of writing portfolio reviews and faculty discussion guided by leaders in the writing field, factors improving student writing achievement have been identified and Salem State College has planned to improve its effectiveness in teaching writing by reducing composition section sizes, appointing a Coordinator of the Freshman Writing Program and expanding the Writing Across the Curriculum Program.

The “Quality 2000” planning process articulated the College’s desire to pursue university status (Goal 12). While not supported at the legislative or BHE level, this goal has contributed to culture change and influenced the faculty hiring process.

As the Strategic Planning Council begins to formulate a new college-wide plan, it recognizes the need to improve the alignment of planning with budget. There has been vagueness about implementation schedules and responsibility for action. The Council recommends that these be included in the next plan. There also needs to be greater coordination of plans within separate units and greater linkages between enrollment management and Academic Affairs. The Council also recognizes that assessing external and internal environments is an ongoing function that it must perform.

In general, though, both faculty and administrators are becoming more aware of the purpose of assessment programs and more willing to participate in their implementation. Faculty are becoming much more open to discussing curriculum changes and are particularly open to discussing revisions of their own department programs such as happened in the Psychology, Criminal Justice and History Departments recently. While the Core Curriculum Assessment has been started under the College Curriculum Committee twice in the last two years, this particular assessment has been more saltatory than progressive because of the manner in which governance committees are appointed. In selected circumstances, the College might be better served in appointing ad hoc committees for the duration of a long-term assessment activity. It takes time to find common ground from which to move forward in such endeavors.

The College Assessment Committee has met for the past two years and has produced an Assessment Mission Statement which has been forwarded to the governance process. While the Statement works its way through governance—a process which often takes upwards of a year or more—the co-chairs of the Assessment Committee have met periodically with department chairs to facilitate the assessment practices of each department. The central principle embodied in the assessment mission statement is that assessment should be generated at the department level.

The consensus of the Committee is that it is essential that assessment be flexible enough to meet the objectives of each department without conflicting with its academic culture. Currently each department is developing its own process for assessment. The most comprehensive of these plans will serve as working models for departments who have only begun this process. The Assessment Committee will serve as a central clearinghouse for those plans.

The logical next steps in the evolution of the planning process include the formulation of guiding assumptions for shaping the next generation of plans, for the convergence of the budgeting and strategic planning processes, and for the establishment of a planning and assessment office.

In sum, the College, in evaluating each part of its mission and in giving priority to the activities of the College Assessment Committee, has stressed that meeting its academic objectives is paramount. Although each academic department is responsible for selecting appropriate evaluation procedures, the College also recognizes that the success of, for example, the Campus Security Community Grant is equally important in determining whether the students have better opportunities for educational success. Thus, institutional effectiveness of Salem State College is measured by both classroom and extra-classroom activities. While the institutional structure for planning and assessment is decentralized, the College components have endorsed the NEASC model of assessment, and we can point to many positive assessment activities, particularly at the department and unit levels, the results of which are used to enhance the College’s effectiveness.

It is recommended that an Office of Institutional Planning and Assessment be established under Academic Affairs to oversee planning and assessment. The administrator in charge would work with the Strategic Planning Council and with the Assessment Committee to coordinate efforts and information flow. This office should also be connected with Institutional Research which will provide data and analytical support. With better coordination, the assessment activities based in the individual units will be integrated to support the College mission and goals more comprehensively. With additional support, research--such as surveys of specific groups of students or alumni--will be more feasible and useful for assessment purposes.

An important step will be improving the budget decision-making process to reflect planning priorities and to support assessment activities. Appropriate mechanisms will be created to communicate college-wide priorities to the campus community. Publications such as the President’s newsletter will include basic information about college-wide decisions and priorities.