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Examples of Assessment by Institution |
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Hope College’s mission is, in part, to provide “academic and co-curricular programs of recognized excellence …” One element of recognized excellence is academic rigor. Hope has assessed academic rigor by collecting data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) since 2003. Hope students were initially not reporting academic engagement at a level that was satisfactory to the college, particularly with respect to number of hours spent studying per week. The college took several steps to respond to this finding, including: a) a faculty meeting to identify ways to increase the college's rigor; b) a brain-storming session by the Deans' Council, which resulted in specific action items designed to increase rigor; c) a workshop for department chairs to share both difficulties and best practices related to academic rigor; and d) campus-wide distribution of strategies (generated by the faculty) to increase intellectual engagement. The result of these efforts is that the percentage of first-year students reporting that they spent only 10 hours a week or less on academic work dropped from 38% in 2003 to 21% in 2007 and 29% in 2008. The percentage of senior students reporting that they spent only 10 hours a week or less on academic work dropped from 39% in 2003 to 22% in 2008. |
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Hope College |
