SFA Program Evaluation Essay

The last time we talked you said that you would like to see me work on developing a nation profile for SFA in assessment. I have been offered the opportunity to serve as the assessment specialist for Texas as part of the Multi-State Collaborative (MSC). As I am sure you know, the MSC is a cooperative venture between American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO). AAC&U and SHEEO have decided to seek an Institute of Educational Sciences (IES) grant to further the work of the MSC. As part of the grant application, each state must identify an assessment specialist to work with the project.

Rex C Peebles, Assistant Commissioner Academic Quality and Workforce at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), contacted the LEAP Texas Executive Committee last week to see if any of us would

We have talked about SFA participating in the project before. I believe at this point 6 other Texas institutions are participating; including the University of Houston-Downtown and University of Texas-Arlington. SFA would need to provide 2 to 3 faculty who would participate as scorers for student work that is submitted to the MSC. We would also need to submit about 100 pieces of student work for each objective assessed by the MSC each year. Generally, they are assessing 3 objectives each year, so we would need to submit 300 pieces of student work. No individually identifiable information for the students will be submitted to the MSC, so our participation in the project should be exempt from IRB. Travel costs for the faculty who will score student work will be paid by the MSC project, and faculty will receive a stipend for their participation. You can find more information on the MSC at