- Non-academic Assessment

NON-ACADEMIC ASSESSMENT

Assessment is a process to achieve continuous improvement that gives administrative and student services

departments the opportunity to review data most important to their function, and reveal opportunities to make

modification and adjustments to improve performance. It is a necessary function to identify areas of potential

improvement.

The formal process is a closed loop journey that includes the following steps:

Identify the department mission.
Identify key performance objectives of the department (which help fulfill that mission).
Tell how the department might demonstrate that they work to achieve their performance objectives.
Identify any data the department has (or wants) that demonstrate how well they perform their objectives.

Using available data, discuss how well the department meets its objectives.
If the data reveal areas for potential improvement, identify how those improvements might be made.
Identify (and request) resources to help make any needed improvements.
Repeat the process to keep track of the effectiveness of changes, and identify new areas for improvement.

This is a continuous process that allows departments to look inside their operations and data on an

annual basis, and discover any opportunities for improvement (from major changes, to minor ways of

“plussing” the department’s operations and activities).

Assessment is necessary to continuously improve the quality of our operations, to provide the best

learning environment possible for our students. Ultimately, the goal of each department at SIPI is to

contribute to student success.

As a starting point, the link below provides an introduction to the non-academic assessment process for SIPI administrators

and staff. Please watch this presentation before reading the manual.

To the right, you will find downloadable versions of the assessment manual, the assessment planning template, and the

assessment reporting template.