“ F I N D I N G T H E P I C A S S O S ”

WHEN TESTING BECOMES A WORK OF ART

Micky Pickens, Program/Test Coordinator, Pierce College Amystique Y. Harris Church, Associate Director of Operations, Delaware State University

ICE BREAKER

• Find someone who…………………1. Has the same name (first, middle or last) as you

2. Was born in the same month as you were

3. Owns a motorcycle

4. Recently worked on a political campaign

5. Has traveled to more than three different countries

6. Has pet

7. Is a member of a fraternity or sorority

8. Speaks another language

9. Plays a musical instrument

10. Has written a grant

11. Has published an article or a book

12. Is a vegetarian

13. Is a twin or triplet

14. Graduated from a HBCU

15. Enjoys dancing

16. Plays a sport

17. Was a Girl Scout or Boy Scout

LET’S CREATE SOME ART

• BUZZ Words• Advising

• Counseling

• Retention

• Intervention

• Test(s) or Testing

• Student(s)

Take a piece from your puzzle bag and place it on your white board to create your picture. First place the round piece with “ME” on your whiteboard as a reminder that you can make a difference in the development of a Picasso (student).

A R T

Advising (Academic Advising)

A series of intentional interactions with a

curriculum, instruction and a set of student learning

outcomes. Academic advising fuses students’

educational experiences within the frameworks of

their aspirations, abilities and lives to extend

learning beyond campus boundaries and

timeframes.

A R T

Retention

There are three extremes of student retention:• Normal progression, typical of a stayer, or retained student, occurs when a student

enrolls each semester until graduation, studies full-time, and graduates in about four years

• Dropout, or leaver, is a student who enters college but leaves before graduating and never returns to that or any other school. • Between these two extremes are transfers, students who begin studies at one institution and

then transfer to another. From the student's perspective, transferring is normal progress. From the perspective of the institution where the student first enrolled, the student has dropped out.

• Stopouts. Students often quit school due to a financial shortfall or a family crisis and return a year later. Other students might start school, drop out to work or to raise a family, and return years, or even decades, later. Someone defined as a dropout could become redefined as a stopout at any time. Other students become slowdowns, going from full-time attendance to taking just a few courses.

A R T

Testing: Round and round it goes where it stops nobody knows. This is just a sample of the many tests provided through our testing centers.

4; 4% 4; 4%

10; 10%

10; 10%

10; 10%

15; 15%

20; 20%

10; 10%

10; 10%3; 3%3; 3%

Types of Tests

GED

ATB

Advanced Placement

ACT

SAT

ACCUPLACER Placement

COMPASS Placement

CLEP

DSST

GRE

GMAT

ACCUPLACER/COLLEGE STUDENT INVENTORY

ACCUPLACER is a suite of tests that quickly, accurately, and efficiently assess reading, writing, math, and computer skills.

The College Student Inventory (CSI) identifies the individual strengths and challenges for each member of your incoming class, as well as their receptivity to your interventions, early in the first term. This student assessment provides data to make interventions more meaningful and relevant, before a student has made a decision to stay or leave. With the CSI, you prioritize your interventions more effectively, connect at-risk students to the resources they need most, and help more of your incoming students persist.

COLLEGIATE LEARNING ASSESSMENT (CLA)

CLA Assessment Services

CLA Assessment Services provide a means for measuring an institution's contribution to the development of key higher order competencies, including the effects of changes to curriculum and pedagogy.  

To gauge summative performance authentically, the CLA presents realistic problems that require students to analyze complex materials and determine the relevance to the task and credibility.

Students' written responses to the tasks are evaluated to assess their abilities to think critically, reason analytically, solve problems and communicate clearly and cogently.  Scores are aggregated to the institutional level to provide a signal to the institution about how their students as a whole are performing.

STUDENT SATISFACTION INVENTORY (SSI)

The Student Satisfaction Inventory gives you a powerful tool to improve the quality of student life and learning. It measures student satisfaction and priorities, showing you how satisfied students are as well as what issues are important to them. Use this data to:

Guide strategic action planning Strengthen student retention initiativesMeet accreditation requirements Identify areas of strength for institutional marketing Chart your progress toward campus goals

CLEP/DSST

College-Level Examination Program® (CLEP) helps you receive college credit for what you already know, for a fraction of the cost of a college course.

DSST is an effective method to provide your college with evidence of prior learning.

NATIONAL SURVEY OF STUDENT ENGAGEMENT (NSSE)

• Student engagement represents two critical features of collegiate quality. The first is the amount of time and effort students put into their studies and other educationally purposeful activities. The second is how the institution deploys its resources and organizes the curriculum and other learning opportunities to get students to participate in activities that decades of research studies show are linked to student learning

TEAMWORK/PARTNERSHIP FOR ART

Delaware State University and Pierce College /Joint Base Lewis McChord are thousands of miles apart and yet we have been able to build a strong working relationship because of our ability to bridge multiple communities together to include service to the military and strong connected degree programs (relationship between two year and four year colleges)

ADVISING AND COUNSELING AT PIERCE COLLEGE

• Instructional faculty advisors (aka: tenured professors) teach a full load of classes and advise only students assigned to them. Instructional faculty advisors have some expertise or connection to a student's major or field of study. Current students must work with their assigned instructional faculty advisor during the registration cycle. Students must also see their instructional faculty advisor to get their Registration Access Code.

• Faculty counselor advisors (FCAs) teach classes, but primarily advise and counsel students. New students generally see FCAs. Current students may see FCAs for additional help with issues related to academics, transferring to a four year university, and career exploration/counseling issues, such as choosing a major, self-exploration, professional development, etc.

• Faculty counselor (FCs) are licensed mental health counselors, and provide short-term help for students experiencing personal difficulties.

MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING

• Mental Health Counseling/Military Mental Health• Depression• Bipolar Disorder• Suicide• Eating Disorders• Stress• Alcohol & Drugs• Cutting• Emotional Health• Schizophrenia

Staff makes use of ULifeline online screening services

RETENTIONPIERCE COLLEGE

Achieving the Dream Program (ATD)• Twenty-seven colleges from around the country came

together to learn about the principles, outcomes, and opportunities of ATD.

• ATD is not a separate initiative and something else to do. It is a framework for coordinating and reviewing all efforts dedicated to “moving the needle” on student success. It’s about inquiry, a way to come together, to talk, and to learn from one another.

•  It begins with a commitment to evidence-based, student-centered, planning and action built on the values of equity and excellence with the overall goal to close achievement gaps and to accelerate student success.

RETENTIONPIERCE COLLEGE

Academic standardsAcademic standards are established to identify and intervene with students who are having academic difficulty, and/or are not making satisfactory academic progress, to encourage students to assume responsibility for their own formal education, and to ensure that the resources of the college are used in the best interest of all its current and potential students

Academic Alert

The first quarter in which a student is enrolled in 5 or more credits and earns a quarterly grade point average of less than a 2.0, s/he will be placed on Academic Alert.

Students placed on academic alert will be notified in writing and given information about available resources to support their success

MAP-WORKS AS A RETENTION TOOL

MAP-Works®,• Making Achievement Possible, empowers faculty and staff to positively impact

student success and retention by identifying at-risk students early in the term. It efficiently and effectively provides faculty and staff the information they need to identify and coordinate interventions with at-risk students

• Retention is driven by systematic, early and comprehensive identification of student issues. MAP-Works utilizes a heuristic algorithm to identify students at risk. MAP-Works incorporates prominent student development and learning theories and integrates both profile and student experience data to ensure accurate identification of at-risk students.

• Empowering students to:• Gain insight about themselves through social-norming• Recognize gaps between their behavior and their desired outcomes• Understand the elements that impact their social and academic success• Reach out and capitalize on campus resources that can help them address

their problems

TESTING—A DIFFERENT LOOK

Much has been said about testing ranging from the wide array of tests that can be administered to the benefits that can be derived from the information gained through assessment of the results.

Let’s take a look at a vital consideration prior to testing. To the point, Test Anxiety.

TEST ANXIETY

Test-Anxiety Control Reduces Attrition•  Along with financial considerations and "not

fitting in," the stress of challenging courses, frequent tests, and boatloads of homework is a principal contributor to leaving college.

• Of course, not all students who leave college do so by choice. Many fail to make the grade, especially in less selective colleges and are asked to leave.

TEST ANXIETY

Test anxiety is more commonplace among marginal students. While about 35% of students ordinarily have excessive anxiety, or figures suggest that the figure is 50% for students on academic probation.

It seems reasonable that a high octane anxiety reduction program would move a fair number of these probation students to the passing range. So where is the heroic Calvary to the rescue?

Pierce College folds anxiety reduction into our accommodations program

TEST ANXIETY(RETAIN HIGHLY STRESSED STUDENTS)

An automated test-anxiety control program appears to promote retention among highly test-anxious students as much as anything that a school system can reasonably offer.

The test-anxiety control training has produced an average half a letter grade gain with 40 college students in three controlled studies

The half letter test gain is enough to lift many of the marginal students into the passing range, allowing them to stay in school. In addition, lower anxiety makes the school experience less stressful and more pleasant, providing an incentive to stay.

Let’s see how you would fair on this short assessment:

Rate how true each of the following is of you, from extremely or always true, to not at all or never true. Use the following 5 point scale. Using the numbered paper and write your answers:

5 4 3 2 1Extremely highly moderately slightly not at all always usually sometimes seldom  never true true true true true

__ 1) The closer I am to a major exam, the harder it is for me to concentrate on the material. 5 4 3 2 1 __ 2) When I study for my exams, I worry that I will not remember the material on the exam. 5 4 3 2 1 

WESTSIDE TEST ANXIETY SCALE-PG 1

WESTSIDE TEST ANXIETY SCALE-PG 2

 __ 3) During important exams, I think that I am doing awful or that I may fail. 5 4 3 2 1 __ 4) I lose focus on important exams, and I cannot remember material that I knew before the exam. 5 4 3 2 1

5) I finally remember the answer to exam questions after the exam is already over. 5 4 3 2 1  __ 6) I worry so much before a major exam that I am too worn out to do my best on the exam. 5 4 3 2 1

WESTSIDE TEST ANXIETY SCALE-PG 3

 __ 7) I feel out of sorts or not really myself when I take important exams. 5 4 3 2 1 __ 8) I find that my mind sometimes wanders when I am taking important exams. 5 4 3 2 1 __ 9) After an exam, I worry about whether I did well enough. 5 4 3 2 1 __ 10) I struggle with written assignments, or avoid doing them, because I feel that whatever I do will not be good enough. I want it to be perfect.  5 4 3 2 1

WESTSIDE TEST ANXIETY SCALE-PG 4

_____ Sum of the 10 questions

< _____ > Divide the sum by 10. This is your Test Anxiety score.

What does your test anxiety score mean?:

1.0—1.9 Comfortably low test anxiety

2.0—2.5 Normal or average test anxiety

2.5—2.9 High normal test anxiety

3.0—3.4 Moderately high (some items rated 4=high)

3.5—3.9 High test anxiety (half or more of the items rated 4=high)

4.0—5.0 Extremely high anxiety (items rated 4=high and 5=extreme)

ART

Advising Retention Testing

100 100 100

200 200 200

300 300 300

400 400 400

ADVISING: 100

• Question:• A suite of tests that quickly, accurately, and

efficiently assess reading, writing, math, and computer skills• Answer• What is “Accuplacer”?

Back

• Question:• This program identifies the individual strengths

and challenges for each member of the incoming class• Answer• What is “College Student Inventory (CSI)”?

Back

ADVISING: 200

• Question:• Also a testing program, this helps students

complete required course material at a fraction of the cost of an actual course• Answer• What is “CLEP”?

Back

ADVISING: 300

• Question:• synthesizes and contextualizes students'

educational experiences within the frameworks of their aspirations, abilities and lives to extend learning beyond campus boundaries and timeframes• Answer• What is “Advising”?

Back

ADVISING: 400

RETENTION: 100

• Question:• This service measures an institutions contribution

to the development of key higher order competencies• Answer• What is the “Collegiate Learning Assessment

(CLA)”?

Back

• Question:• This program uses services such as these, Guide

strategic action planning, Strengthen student retention initiatives, and Meet accreditation requirements, to show what issues are important to them and how satisfied they are • Answer• What is the “Student Satisfactory Inventory

(SSI)”?

Back

RETENTION: 200

• Question:• This product measures students time and effort

towards studying, as well as the institutions ability to deploy its resources and organizes programs for students outside of academia.• Answer• What is the “National Survey of Student

Engagement”?

Back

RETENTION: 300

• Question:• A service provided to high school students to help

them get an idea of what they need to be prepared for their years in post-secondary education• Answer• What is “College Readiness”?

Back

RETENTION: 400

TESTING: 100

• Question:• This program helps you receive college credit for

what you already know• Answer• What is the “College-Level Examination Program

(CLEP)”?

Back

TESTING: 200

• Question:• an effective method to provide your college with

evidence of prior learning • Answer• What is “DSST”?

Back

TESTING: 300

• Question:• This program is offered for students from other

universities, online or on campus, to take their exams at our facility• Answer• What are “Courtesy Exams”?

Back

TESTING: 400

• Question:• This program is offered throughout the year as a

paper-based and now a computer-based testing program. Many students utilize this program to continue their coursework in the Education department• Answer• What are “Teacher Certification Tests” (Praxis

Testing)?

Back

Q & A

THANKS FOR JOINING US TODAYCONTACT INFORMATION

Micky Pickens, Program/Test Coordinator/InstructorPierce College National Test Center at JBLM851 Lincoln Blvd, Room 304McChord, WA 98438253-964-6606 (office)mpickens@pierce.ctc.edu

Amystique Y. Harris Church, Associate Director of Operations/Adjunct Instructor/AdvisorDelaware State UniversityOffice of Testing302-857-6143 (office)achurch@desu.edu