Institutional Effectiveness Focus Group Survey

The purpose of this survey is to elicit opinions from the college community regarding the role and responsibilities of institutional effectiveness in helping the college achieve its mission.

1. What is your job title or position (Division or Area)?
a. Academic Dean
b. Program Director, Radiography (Allied Health)
c. Counselor (Student Affairs)
d. Assistant Director Institutional Research (Research)
e. Teacher’s Aide (Community and Economic Development)
f. Assistant Professor (Communication & Business Development/GED/ Adult Education)
g. Director of Advancement (Resource Development)
h. Math Skills Specialist/Student Support Services ( Natural Sciences, Mathematics, & Respiratory Therapy)

2. What does (should) the term “institutional effectiveness” entail?
a. how well the institution measures learning
b. tracking outcomes of end products and evaluating methods to improve the production process
c. evaluating how well the college is meeting its mission
i. helping students develop and research career goals
ii. Helping develop tomorrow’s leaders
iii. Evaluating “value” added to the students
d. Process – beginning with registration process thru completion
e. credentials awarded/those with marketable skills
f. how well the school as a whole is doing at helping a student achieve their personal goals
g. providing quality program services to the public
h. continued improvement – it is a broad term covering things like: data collection and distribution based upon “needs”; regular reports for “set” areas of interest; analysis of data beyond “frequencies”
i. the institution’s “effectiveness” should ultimately be that it positively affects student learning. Student learning is our reason for being, as an institution and one of the results of our mission.

3. Which factors should play the largest roles in evaluating our college’s effectiveness?
a. persistence
b. evaluation of programs
c. Effective AGGRESSIVE survey of interested target groups and proper evaluation of accumulated data.
d. success of first year students
e. transition from developmental to core courses
f. value added (growth in core competency areas)
g. transition to world of work, further education….graduation
h. success of high/low level students
i. credentials awarded
j. employment retention
k. completion with marketable skills (?)
l. student success of goals met
m. availability of classes at school (time, available space)
n. outcomes – grad. Scores, # of complete programs, retention rate, jobs graduates get
o. meeting community needs
p. where our graduates end up (e.g. 4 year school; jobs; etc.)
q. student learning; student surveys; course grades; instructors surveys; etc.
r. how financial aid & registration work to student satisfaction
s. how many students (graduates) are employed in the field of their choice (this item is to Southeast’s new job placement service)

4. How should student learning be measured?
a. exams
b. gateway tests
c. accreditation requirements (???)
d. cognitive, psychomotor and affective response to desired outcomes. Emphasis will vary from one area C, P, or A dependant on the type of skills to be used from the learning task.
e. growth against personal base line
f. progress toward competency outcomes
g. completion/transition
h. performance – goals attained, from 1^st semester until completion
i. grades; knowledge learned; post/test; goals met
j. instruction tied to progression of scoring and passing classes
k. on APPLIED project completion (if possible - real life projects)
l. post graduate surveys (these are tough)
m. its easy to say testing, but testing has its drawbacks. It’s necessary for reports and so forth to have testing data, of course I’m not sure. The best way would be a multi-faceted paper/oral performance type of exit exam but that’s not necessarily do-able.

5. How should teaching (instruction) be evaluated?
a. Grades – does evaluation (exams) match instruction?
b. student and peer evaluation & from the user (employer) of the end product.(Do the graduates know what they were taught?)
c. Growth against individual baseline
progress toward competency outcomes
success of high and low level students
d. presentation effectiveness
e. instruction tied to progression of scoring and passing classes
f. Peer evaluation and post graduate surveys (these are tough)
g. By observation, preferably by multiple persons, as in K – 12 education. The current evaluation system virtually omits on-site observation by expert educators, and the dialogue that should follow. There’s a big disconnect between K – 12 and 12 + observation and evaluation.

6. Which criteria should be used to evaluate academic programs or departments?
a. any criterion that involves data collection
b. evaluation of graduate ability to perform program tasks; employer surveys; comprehensive exit exams of program knowledge; certification exam results
c. success of low level students; Individual growth/value added; success of mastery of competencies; completion/transition to further education/work/success at next level
d. performance – completion – those with marketable skills – credentials awarded – employment – retention of better students enrollment - & employment
e. effectiveness/popularity of classes – class scores tied to percent of same
f. Do they get the job done? Do they achieve pre-set goals?
g. success rates (i.e. graduates; graduates with high GPAs; student satisfaction with services received; peer evaluations)

7. What sort of data/information would help you, either in dealing with students or with other job duties?
a. consistent BY SEMESTER “student satisfaction” surveys of courses taught. (tech programs); matrix word and graph reports of survey results.
b. overall baseline/exit
c. excellent retention – completion retention – GPA - testing scores
d. comparing & interacting; sharing data within/outside institution – student’s needs; general output info
e. when I was writing the case for support I needed data on things like the number of students graduating each year, going back to the first graduating class. That data was not available. I had to dig it out from handwritten data.
f. student demographics like traditional/non-traditional, working/non-working, need/don’t need child care to attend college, do/don’t have physical or medical problems that could interfere with class attendance (of course confidentiality is a problem), etc. even high school attendance/grades. I’m thinking of all the many reasons that people in my math classes find to miss class or drop out.