The Office of Assessment and Research gathers information to assess and evaluate student learning, academic programs and services and provides results that contribute to the campus dialogue on these and other topics central to the College’s mission of academic excellence.
The office works closely with all divisions and departments across the College on the development and implementation of formative and summative assessment projects using quantitative and qualitative methodologies that gather evidence that supports mission-driven outcomes.
What We Do
The office assists the College in the pursuit of its mission by gathering, analyzing and reporting on assessment and evaluation data to inform planning and decision-making. The office is primarily responsible for three main areas.
Campuswide Assessment
The office administers nationally-normed and Holy Cross-developed surveys to the College community to gather student perceptions of their experiences over their four years at the College and after, employee satisfaction, campus climate and Title IX. The data from these surveys provide analytic support for various planning and assessment activities across campus and offers valuable feedback to improve educational effectiveness and demonstrate perceived educational impact.
Surveys include:
- American Collegiate Health Association (NCHA-ACHA) survey
- Cooperative Institutional Research Project Freshman Survey (CIRP)
- College Senior Survey (CSS)
- COACHE Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey
- HERI Faculty Survey
- National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE)
- Holy Cross Job Satisfaction Survey
- Holy Cross Campus Climate Survey
- Holy Cross Entering First-Year Student Survey
- Holy Cross Exiting Student Survey
- Holy Cross First Destination Survey
- Holy Cross Alumni Survey
Assessment of Student Learning and Success
To support the College’s goals for a liberal arts education and departmental learning goals and outcomes, the office works closely with academic departments and support offices to build capacity to empirically engage questions about student learning and develop appropriate data collection strategies for ongoing assessment.
Assessment strategies include the collection of indirect evidence that uses survey data to link results to student outcomes and the collection of direct evidence of student learning through the assessment of student writing, oral communication, acquisition and retention of content knowledge and other outcomes as they relate to College-wide and department specific learning outcomes. Methodologies include: reliability and validity analyses, rubric development and norming, test construction, survey development, and qualitative interviewing and analysis.
Program Evaluation
The office is responsible for evaluating academic programs and services, such as Study Abroad, the College’s first-year Montserrat program, advising, orientation programs, and other special programmatic initiatives. Using a mixed methods approach, results are analyzed to offer both formative and summative results that inform program improvement and impact.