ASSESSMENT

Colby College believes strongly in regular assessment of our programs. Colby routinely gathers data to assess the performance of our planning and academic programs and to identify areas for improvement. Assessment strategies used include the following:

• The Admissions Office provides data on the incoming students each year including their interest in becoming science majors and their board/SAT scores. We also investigate the choices of students not matriculating at Colby looking for patterns.



• The Registrar annually tracks numbers of majors in each department, the number of students enrolling for independent research courses and honors courses, enrollments in other courses, and the retention rates of students in their majors.
  
  
• We solicit comparative data from peer groups such as the Council on Undergraduate Research and from visits to peer institutions.
  
  
• We utilize other opportunities for information gathering and outside evaluation (e.g., NSF-AIRE, HHMI).
  
  
• Each department submits an annual report to the Dean of Faculty, which covers courses taught (including new and revised ones), publications and presentations, acceptance of majors into graduate or professional schools, and advising innovations.
  
  
• Departments track entry of their graduates into graduate and other professional schools and their employment records.
  
  
• The College requires completion course evaluations and peer reviews, important to assessing our progress.
  
  
• Colby staff and faculty annually conduct exit interviews with graduating seniors. These conversations are compiled and presented to the faculty and administration by the Dean of Students Office.
  
  
• Each department in the College is reviewed by outside overseers every five years. The overseers' visit entails preparation of a detailed self study by the department, the visit by the overseers, the report of the overseers, and the departmental and Dean of Faculty's response to the overseers' report. The departmental self studies are presented to the Dean of Faculty and the President, while the departmental response is presented to the Board of Trustees.
  
  
• Colby uses focus groups successfully to review our programs.
  
  
• Colby routinely surveys its alumni to keep in touch with their professional development. Science alumni were surveyed about their employment history; attendance in graduate or professional school; and any grants, scholarships, fellowships, or awards received since leaving Colby.
  
  
• The Division of Natural Sciences conducts surveys of our alumni/nae who were majors in science and mathematics.
  
  
• We ask alumni attending graduate school how well Colby had prepared them for their graduate programs.
  
  
• We survey chairs of graduate and professional school programs after the matriculation of our students to ask how our students compare to their peers.
  
  
• The Career Services Office surveys all students at graduation and one year later.

On December 10-11, 2001, Dr. Susan Singer, Carleton College, visited Colby to provide additional assessment of our NSF-AIRE grant. She was selected because of her academic background and NSF experience. She also served as an Overseer to Biology this fall. Dr. Singer reviewed Biology, Environmental Studies, and Science, Technology and Society. A similar assessment of our NSF-AIRE grant emphasizing the physical sciences will be conducted in spring 2002.

Departmental Overseer’s Visits

On a regular basis (previously every five years and, effective in 2002-2003, every eight years), a team of reviewers or overseers visits each department on campus. Since our last report, Colby has received the comments from the Department of Chemistry’s 2000 Overseers Visit and the Dean of Faculty has responded to those comments. The Overseers praised the department for its extensive use of project-based learning and also for the innovative changes within their gateway and distribution courses. They also noted positively the large numbers of chemistry students presenting the results of their research at national conferences.

During the fall of 2001, the Department of Biology underwent an Overseers Visit and a report is expected within several weeks. These exercises provide valuable guidance for faculty and administrators on all aspects of each department. The Overseers to Biology reported in their exit meeting that they looked very favorably upon the new pedagogical initiatives that have added project-based learning components to courses throughout the curriculum. They noted the importance of reducing enrollments in introductory courses and its positive relationship to pedagogical effectiveness.