The Work of Program Assessment

Yesterday I was interviewed by my Comp Director; she is working on interviewing everyone involved in program assessment, and since I was there and I’m the Assistant Director of Composition, I agreed to take part. One of the most interesting questions she asked was about the work involved in the program assessment. My answer hits on a topic I’ve often thought about – the work no one really talks about or considers work. I told her that everyone she spoke to, emailed, and or sought support from worked for our program assessment. While it’s not paid work, it’s still work. These people, on and off campus, took time, spent energy and effort, and therefore worked so we could assess our composition program. The researchers she referenced also worked for us. While they have credit for their work in terms of publications and other forms of work and/or acknowledgment, they still are part of the work that goes into program assessment. I’m sure I’m not the first person to conceive of work this broadly, and I intend to do some research into it, but it struck me yesterday as an important observation.

In addition, I told her that all of our teachers and our students contributed work for program assessment. While using the curriculum is both expected and paid work, it’s still work. Our instructors had to learn new theories, engage in professional development and training, and then implement the curriculum. They had to teach new concepts, assign reflections and portfolios, and then submit the data so we could assess the program. That’s hard work. The students worked all semester to create the portfolios that made up the data that was coded, but the instructors had to submit the data, giving them extra work at the end of the semester. Every aspect of the curriculum and design/implementation of it requires work both paid and unpaid. This is potentially taxing to some, especially contingent faculty.

I was responsible for the majority of the data coding for two courses over two semesters. I had help with part of Spring 2019’s data, but I did all of Fall 2018 myself with no training. I did read quite a bit to give myself some confidence in doing the work of program assessment. And now I know we have much more work to do in order to get our program where we want it to be. Even when my time as Assistant Director of Composition is over (it’s two-year revolving position) I will still do the work of program assessment because I am an instructor and because I believe it is important, no essential, part of our job. Our work.