The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the various ways that assessment results can be reported and used by departments.

When reporting the results of department assessment activities, the first questions a department needs to ask are: "Who is our audience?" and "What do they want to know?" The kind of report expected for a General Studies course evaluation may be completely different from what a professional accreditation review may require.

For some reports, it may be necessary to discuss the statistical analysis and the results. Other types of reports may simply require discussing the types of activities in which the department is engaged without reporting data or results. The guidelines for the General Studies evaluation ask that particular kinds of data (student comments, faculty insights, student academic achievement) be used for department evaluations. Accreditation requirements may simply request that the department submit an assessment plan and discuss its uses.

Checklist - To whom are we reporting our results?

• Accrediting bodies
• Federal agencies
• Commission on Higher Education
• deans and other administrators
• college curriculum committee
• General Studies Subcommittee
• Department planning committee
• alumni
• colleagues at other universities
• students

Uses for Assessment Results

A question frequently asked by department faculty members is "How can assessment data be used?" The following are suggestions for different ways that assessment information can be beneficial.

Primary uses:

• Accreditation reports and reviews
• General Studies evaluations
• Curriculum review

Assessment results can be distributed to faculty members to encourage a discussion of perceived strengths and weaknesses of the department or to generate ideas.

• Requests to a curriculum committee

Assessment data may accompany requests to a college curriculum committee for additional courses. For example, an alumni survey might reveal that the department's graduates find themselves lacking a particular skill required for the market. The department could use the results of the survey to support a request for a new course to teach that skill and to give graduates a more competitive edge.

Secondary uses:

• Recruiting

Findings about the satisfaction of current majors can be used to recruit new students to the department.

• Alumni newsletter
• Publications - assessment results can be shared with other institutions.
• Career services

There is growing interest in the successful marketing of college graduates. Department alumni surveys can demonstrate to prospective employers why graduates from that department are more skilled, and better qualified than graduates from similar departments at other universities and colleges. This can be done on a departmental level or centrally.

• Securing grants

Questions and Answers on Reporting and Using Assessment Results

Q) How can we make sure that the results of our assessment activities are used?

A) The first step in assuring that results are used is to share them with department faculty members. A written report could be prepared and distributed to the faculty. Faculty members who were involved in the assessment efforts could present their findings at a faculty meeting. Some departments have even established yearly planning retreats just for the purpose of discussing their assessment results. The results of your assessment activities can be used to generate a discussion among the faculty. What does the report tell you about your course or program? What possible changes are indicated? How could the department use the results to the best advantage? Depending on the department's assessment needs, further reports or presentation could be prepared for different audiences.

Q) What's the best way to share our findings?

A) The first step in sharing assessment results is usually to prepare a written report that can be distributed to both faculty members within the department and constituents external to the department. The format of the report will be determined by the type of assessment activity implemented and the audience for whom the report is prepared. For most audiences, a simple descriptive report is usually sufficient.

Q) What should be included in an assessment report?

A) Depending on the audience, an assessment report can include enough information to answer four basic questions:

1. What did we do?
2. Why did we do it?
3. What did we find?
4. How will we use it?

Q) In reporting what we found, do we need to report actual data or the interpretation of the data?

A) This depends on your audience. Some constituents may require the department to record actual findings from assessment projects. Other reports may call for a summary of findings – the implications of your assessment results.

Q) Do we have to report everything?

A) In most circumstances the department will choose what is to be reported. In addition to the expected results of an assessment project, there are often unexpected results. While you may be required to report the expected results (i.e., placement rate of graduates), the unexpected results may be useful only to the department. For example, an alumni survey may reveal that not only are graduates getting jobs, but the majority of them are getting jobs in one particular type of firm or company. This information could allow the department to zero in on what job skills their graduates have that are making them so marketable with these companies. While useful to the department, this information may not be of interest to constituents such as accreditation teams or college curriculum committees.

Q) What is the best way to display assessment results in reports?

A) For most purposes, if survey results need to be visually displayed, simple frequencies will suffice – tables that indicate the number of responses for each response category of the survey questions. Test and survey results that are cross-classified with information obtained from the student database such as GPA or SAT/ACT scores can also be presented in tables. For more detailed reports, you can use graphs or pie charts to illustrate findings (see Chapter VI). As with other aspects of assessment, the types of visual displays you use depend on the kind of assessment project and the audience for whom it is done.

Q) How long do we need to keep our results?

A) It is a good idea to keep assessment results for a few years. Departments often find it useful to do longitudinal studies of assessment projects. What trends or patterns are revealed when looking at responses from alumni or graduating seniors over time? As the job market, the economy, technology, or even the department itself change with time, so will the results of assessment activities. Also, many assessment evaluations are on cycles. The General Studies evaluation is on a three year cycle. State commission or accreditation reviews may be every five to ten years. Similarly, some departments do alumni surveys annually, while others prefer to do them every five years. To know what has been done before, to learn from past mistakes, or to do longitudinal studies, it may be advisable to keep the results of assessment projects for a period of three to five years.

Some Common Chart Types

Pie Chart		Pie charts are an excellent way to show parts of a whole. They emphasize general findings, but do not make small differences apparent. Pie charts with more than five or six slices should be avoided. For this reason, pie charts are used only with categorical data with a relatively small number of values or categories. Use a bar chart when you are showing several categories.
Bar Chart		Bars are often used to compare differences between groups. This type of chart, like the pie chart, is also used with categorical data, and can illustrate up to about 15 categories very effectively. Bar charts make small differences between categories easily distinguishable.
Scatter Plot		Scatter plot charts are used to display continuous data (such as GPA or SAT scores) from two variables. The scatter plot can easily show hundreds of data points. Sometimes a regression or "best fit" line is drawn to illustrate a pattern in the data, if one is present. In fact, the scatter plot is often used to discern or illustrate patterns in a large data set.

For Further Reading

Morris, Lynn Lyons, Carol Taylor Fitz-Gibbon and Marie E. Freeman. How to Communicate Evaluation Findings. Newbury Park: SAGE Publications, 1987.