This document provides recommendations for the agenda of an upcoming conference with the overarching theme of "Partnerships". It recommends that the conference include: 1) A keynote address by Peggy to introduce the theme of partnerships and their importance in achieving assessment goals. 2) Concurrent sessions so attendees can participate in all discussions. 3) A discussion on Lumina Degree Qualifications Profile and what Massachusetts becoming a LEAP state means for campuses. 4) Presentations on collaborative models for faculty, institutional research, and assessment staff to work together productively.

1. June 24, 2011
AMCOA Planning Group recommendations
“Partnerships” should be an overarching theme for all four conferences.
o There are a number of partnerships that need to occur as part of assessment: academic -co-
curricular, faculty-IR and Assessment, campus-community., etc.
o This theme is recommended as being of importance to achieving our individual and collective
assessment and improvement goals.
If possible, the conference should be organized with concurrent sessions so that everyone can attend all the
sessions.
The conference should begin with a Keynote address (Peggy?) to frame the theme of “partnership.”
Discussion session: “LEAP and Beyond”
o Include an initial discussion about LEAP and the Lumina Degree Profile at this conference, with
follow up in subsequent conferences
o The BHE has recommended that Massachusetts become a LEAP state, but there is still uncertainty
about what that means for campuses and the system
Presentation Session: Collaborative models for faculty-IR-assessment
o These roles require very distinctive skills sets. How can they work together most productively?
What collaborative models are working for campuses?
o What are the particular difficulties on smaller campuses when two or more roles are filled by the
same person?
Discussion session with Jonathon Keller, DHE
o An invitation for him to speak about the challenges of mining and reporting data, particularly in
the context of the expectations of the Vision Project
Presentation session: Identifying models for using NSSE/CSSE data
o How can this data be triangulated with other data to support change? What models have campuses
used to mine, review and report on this data?
Presentation session: Reviewing the selection of commercially developed assessment instruments as well as
data gathering, analyzing and reporting instruments available
o Although the Working Group has not endorsed standardized testing as part of the Vision Project,
campuses that want to use commercially developed tools have a multitude of choices.
o Which ones have been used? Which ones have been supported by faculty? How well have they
worked?
Additional topics were generated, but were thought more suited to the conferences that will involve faculty more
directly. They are:
Developing models that would link curricular and co-curricular learning
o Describing Best Practice models of collaboration
o Identifying ways to increase collaboration and learning about the benefits of doing so.
Articulating Achievement Levels
o Determining what a shared outcome would look like
o Exploring the pros and cons of moving towards shared criteria/benchmarks
o Developing a process for moving that forward that with another institution
Gainful Employment Reporting
o The requirements for reporting are not yet clear, but sharing information about what and how
information could be collected to serve this and other assessment purposes at the same time would
be helpful.