Stakeholders and Action Plan to Prepare for Assessment

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Involving stakeholders

Stakeholders are parties with interest in assessment planning. They play a role in the formation, evaluation and implementation of an assessment plan. Stakeholders are either internal or external. Administrators, staff, faculty, students and institutional researchers are the internal stakeholders. The external stakeholders are disciplinary and professional standard bodies, employers and alumni, peer programs and colleges and faculty teaching more advanced courses. Involving stakeholders in assessment is important for organizational decision making (ReferenSuskie). The evidence from the assessment should be used by stakeholders to improve activities, programs or institution for which they are responsible and accountable for. In this case, an academic institution assesses its student in order to improve its academic performance.

The assessment collects data about the student’s background characteristics, educational experiences and student learning in order to determine the consistencies and inconsistencies in their activities or performance. The other stakeholders i.e. staff and disciplinary and professional bodies gather the data using qualitative and quantitative methods and later analyze and interpret the data based on the criterion of performance level set e.g. grammar or creativity of the student. They discuss and vote to determine the best value (Suskie). The external stakeholders are used to bring external information to inform discussions to help develop justifiable benchmarks. The results from the assessment plan are used in planning and implementation process.

Strategies used to ensure stakeholder involvement in the assessment process are as follows: to begin with, the process should give them a sense of ownership. For example, it gives students the means, motive and opportunity to take control of their own learning (Brans Kamp). Moreover, the process should be understandable, relevant and acceptable to the stakeholders. Most importantly the process should align itself to the culture, mission and vision of the institution which they strive to achieve. Furthermore, the assessment plan should recognize their different backgrounds, goals, perceptions and experiences and the influence in their interpretation and decision making. Therefore, the plan should advocate for a culture of openness, trust and commitment to self-examination among different stakeholders.

In conclusion, communication of the implementation plans is important. Communication (oral, written or group meetings) and different dissemination strategies are needed to accommodate different stakeholders. it is important to discuss and seek their reaction in order to deliberate actions to be taken to improve the performance of the academic institution. Stakeholder involvement determines the quality and effectiveness of an assessment and therefore should be involved in the process.

Works Cited Brans Kamp, L. A., & Engberg, M. E. Guidelines for judging the effectiveness of assessing student learning. . 2014. 11 February 2020. ReferenSuskie, L. What is good assessment? . 17 March 2014. 11 February 2020. Suskie, L. Setting meaningful benchmarks or standards. 23 March 2015. 11 February 2020.