Program Evaluation and Review

Overview

WISR was founded, in part, to be a tiny, mindful alternative that in a modest way could endeavor to be a "Center and Model for Experimentation in Higher Education", and for this reason, we have always given considerable, and continual, attention to evaluating what we do. In WISR's first decade, our efforts to do this were supported by a three-year (1980-83) grant from the US Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, to document and further develop our methods of action-inquiry, and subsequently by a grant from the Association for Community-Based Education. Since then, WISR faculty have continued to exercise leadership to engage students, alumni and Board in a collaborative, evidence-based effort. All parties participate in gathering and analyzing evidence about WISR's successes, weaknesses, and challenges in fulfilling its mission, pursuing its goals and achieving its objectives. In the section on "Rationale", we discuss the philosophy and methodological rationale underlying our approach to programmatic and institutional review and self-study. In this section, we outline the specific activities that are part of our continual review.

Annual Evaluations of Program and Faculty

Each summer, WISR conducts the following surveys to evaluate instruction, curriculum, and faculty:

• All students are asked to answer a survey, evaluating the instructional performance of the faculty with whom they have worked most closely.

• All students, and recent alumni, are asked to answer a survey rating their satisfaction with their learning at WISR, and WISR's contribution to their learning, including, but not limited to, the contribution to their job performance and/or community involvement. In addition, students are asked to comment on some of the details of any such contributions to their learning, as well as on areas of needed improvement in the curriculum or instruction, and also on those areas in which WISR's approach has been strong and helpful to them. 

• In addition, students who are advanced in their studies at WISR, and recent alumni, are asked to solicit from employers, coworkers and/or clients evaluations of their performance, which are then sent directly to WISR. 

• Information from these surveys, as well as information on WISR's curriculum and recent revisions in the curriculum, are shared with WISR's Academic Advisory Committee. They confer with one another and with representatives from WISR's faculty as part of this Program Review process. Among the topics considered are: 1) the coherence (or lack of) between WISR's mission, learning goals, programmatic learning outcomes and course content and methods; 2) areas in which the curriculum should be strengthened, modified, and/or further evaluated; and 3) methods and areas that are particularly strong and which should be retained or be given even greater emphasis.

Ongoing Evaluation

The evaluation of WISR's curriculum, learning outcomes, and teaching-learning methods is continual. WISR was founded with the intention of being mindful and purposeful in experimenting with educational improvements. Here are some of the many ways in which this process happens, day by day, month by month:

• Students and faculty meet often, one on one, and discuss learning issues and strategies, and what is working for that student, and what some of the problems are.

• Faculty meetings are monthly, and much of the meeting time is devoted to discussing curricular and instructional methods, and needed improvements.

• Faculty meet several times every six months to conduct a "Semi Annual Review" of each student's progress, and of our degree programs and teaching-learning at WISR, overall.

• Every three years, a committee of WISR faculty meet for several months to review, and make improvements in, one of WISR's three academic degree programs. Consequently, each program is reviewed and improvements are made once every three years, at the very least. 

• WISR's CEO confers with members of WISR's Academic Advisory Committee--throughout the year, to draw on their ideas and suggestions.

• WISR's Board meets at least three to four times, per year, and an Academic Advisory Committee of the Board, stays abreast of issues, developments and challenges pertaining to WISR's academic degree programs and learning methods.

• Not uncommonly, a few minutes is spent before, during and/or after some WISR seminars to discuss ideas for improving learning at WISR.