Exhibit
2.7
Description of Information Technology to Manage
Assessment System
Work is proceeding very rapidly in terms of the use of information technology to support the management of the EMU professional educator assessment system. This work is expected to be at a very different place by mid-November, 2003 than it is as of this writing (September 2003). It is recommended that the NCATE Board of Examiners team interview Ms. Joan Quinlan, Dr. James Berry, and Dr. Nelson Maylone, in particular, in order to ascertain the status of this project at the time of the BOE visit.
The EMU College of Education, including its Office of Academic Services (where the management of the assessment system is housed), is well supplied with computers. In addition, much relevant information is stored in the University's mainframe. The Banner system, to which most university operations have converted in the recent past or will in the near future, is new to this campus and conversion from the former system to Banner has posed the usual problems of data conversion, personnel training to input and extract data, and the like. During approximately the same period of time, the university's Institutional Research function has expanded rapidly and new personnel have joined that operation.
In the midst of this highly dynamic campus environment, work is progressing rapidly related to the management of the professional educator assessment system in two major categories.
A. Information about individuals. A number of computers in the COE Office of Academic Services have been linked, permitting multiple individuals to have access to common data. Existing data bases, formerly maintained in different offices as "stand alone" data sets, have been merged or linked--admissions to the initial teacher preparation program, student teaching, certification, certification test scores, etc. Underway at the present time is an attempt to identify from university records all EMU students who are allegedly in some (especially initial) educator preparation program. This will permit the creation of a very large data base from which the progress of candidates through our program can be traced. It is anticipated that this will generate, at the outset, a very large "exception report" that will take much time to reconcile--removal of students who have functionally dropped out, students who are mis-classified in university records, and the like.B. Information about groups. Assessment of various portions of the program is new, especially for many of the mid-program assessments. The data reported in the Standard 2 Exhibits are, in many instances, the first "public" reporting of these data. As a result, the data are currently maintained in a very decentralized manner in computers throughout the College of Education, at least in part because there has not been any place to "deposit" it. Further, the emphasis to this point has been on the performance of groups, as opposed to the performance of individuals.
As a place to deposit information about individuals becomes available (point A above), clearly steps will need to be taken not only to collect information about groups on various characteristics (point B above), but mid-program performance information about individuals (and other information about individuals, including data from follow-up studies) will need to be added to the electronic file for each individual along with the existing "major milestone" information (admission to the program, admission to student teaching, certification test score information, recommendation for licensure information, etc.) that is rapidly becoming available.
It is expected that the management tasks associated with the assessment system will have a primary focus on the initial teacher preparation program in the near future, with comparable tasks associated with the advanced programs given major attention at a later time.
Although discussions have taken place with the leadership of the campus Institutional Research and Information Management Office about housing what will become a very large data base as part of the university's "Data Warehouse," decisions about when and how to accomplish that remain to be determined.