St. Cloud State University

Assessment Mini-Grants

Each year, the Assessment Steering Committee awards 15-20 mini-grants, depending on the current budget.  All faculty are eligible to apply for assessment grants.  You may request money (up to $2,000.00 per faculty member).  When more than one faculty member is significantly involved in the project, more money may be requested.  Or you may choose to request one course of reassigned time for an assessment project.

 Mini-Grant Proposals  are due early each semester and awards are made for the following semester.  If you aren’t sure what kind of activity might qualify for an assessment grant, please contact Brenda Wentworth, Faculty Director of Assessment.  If you’d like to receive a course of reassigned time or some additional money, but you don’t have any ideas for an assessment project, I’d be glad to work with you to develop a project.  Projects involving more than one faculty member are encouraged, as are projects that include more than one discipline.

The Assessment Office would like to congratulate the following recipients of Assessment Mini-Grants for Fall-2001:

• Chris Gordon, English, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, Communication Arts/Literature Program Assessment..

• Chris H Jazwinski, Psychology, Assessing the Impact of Course Work on Scientific Understanding in the Psychology Major.

• James Sheroman, Sociology and Anthropology, College of Social Sciences, Design and Implementation of an Entrance/Exit Instrument to Measure Attainment of the Learning Goals of the Sociology Major.

The Assessment Office would like to congratulate the following recipients of Assessment Mini-Grants for Spring-2001:

• Monica Devers, Com Disorder, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess learning of real world commmunication disorders by communication disorder students.

• Mary Elizabeth Glade, History, College of Social Sciences, Assessing writing in BA History program.

• Judith Kilborn, English, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess student learning at an internship site.

• Luke Tripp, Margaret Villanueva, Michael Tripp, Semya Hakim, Human Relations and Multicultural education, Assessing student learning in Racial Issue courses.

The Assessment Office would like to congratulate the following recipients of Assessment Mini-Grants for Fall-2000:

• Mary Elizabeth Glade, History, College of Social Sciences, to assess learning and skills for history majors.

• Marc Markell, Special Education, College of Education, to assess multicultural competencies for the teacher preparation program.

• Gary Whitford, Social Work, College of Social Sciences, to assess student learning at an internship site.

• Richard Lavallee, Tamara Leenay, and Jack Mckenna, Chemistry, College of Science and Engineering, to assess the preparatory chemistry course (CHEM 140) as a predictor of success in general chemistry course (CHEM 210).

The Assessment Office would like to congratulate the following recipients of Assessment Mini-Grants for Spring 2000:

• Phyllis E. Van Buren, Foreign Languages and Literature, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess reading competencies at the second year and its implications for the Spanish Program.

• Kathy Uradnick and Patricia Bodelson, Political Science , College of Social Sciences, to assess student learning based on the parameters designated by the unifying horizontal curricular concepts of power, institutions and culture with the vertical threads of cognitive mastery.

• Paula Tompkins, Speech Communication, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess inter-relationships between General Education core courses.

• Marcelyn Smale, Music, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess the graduate program in music.

• Isolde Mueller, Department of Foreign Languages and Literature, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess reading skills in the four-year German Program.

• Richard Lavallee, Tamara Leenay, Alison Johnson, Jack Mckenna, Chemistry, College of Science and Engineering, to assess the first year chemistry curriculum offered by the Chemistry Department.

• Marc Markell, Special Education, College of Education, to assess multicultural competencies for the teacher preparation program.

• Kurt Helgeson, Environmental and Technology Studies, College of Science and Engineering, to assess learner outcomes in graduate studies for environmental and technology studies.

• Christie Gordon, English, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess the Bachelor of Arts English Program.

• Mary Edwards, Economics, College of Social Sciences, to evaluate the determinants of success in the Principle of Economics classes.

• Monica Devers, Communication Disorders, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to facilitate the development of real world clinical skills in communication disorder students.

The Assessment Office would like to congratulate the following recipients of Assessment Mini-Grants for 1998-99:

• Brad Sleeper, Brad Schweiger, Elaine Davis, Cheryl Mitteness, and David Krueger, College of Business, to assess educational testing service (ETS) business field tests for College of Business graduating seniors.

• Richard Lavallee, Tamara Leenay, Alison Johnson, Jack Mckenna,   Chemistry, College of Science and Enigineering, to assess the first year chemistry curriculum offered by the Chemistry Department.

• Melissa Krause, Scott Miller, Margaret Schmidt, and Marcelyn Smale, Music, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to develop electronic portfolios for music majors.

• Kurt Helgeson, Environmental and Technology Studies, College of Science and Engineering, to develop an assessment  model for technology education majors in environmental and technology studies program.

• Russell Arent, English, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess international students’ mastery of the drafting process in college English as a Second Language (ESL) writing.

The Assessment Office would like to congratulate the following recipients of Assessment Mini-Grants for 1997-98:

• Phyllis E. Van Buren, Foreign Languages and Literature, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to administer and rate the SOPI (Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview), a standardized instrument for assessing language proficiency at various levels of learning.

• Michael Tripp, Human Relations and Multicultural Education, to evaluate the students’ perception of the effectiveness of courses promoting Critical Thinking Skills.

• Luke Tripp, Community Studies, College of Social Sciences, to assess “Critical Thinking Teaching Strategies” in American Studies.

• Brad Sleeper, College of Business, to assess the performance of “ College of Business Pre-Advising Program”.

• James Sherohman, Sociology/Anthropology, College of Social Sciences, to plan, design and implement assessment activities for the Applied Sociology Alumni Advisory Board.

• Anthony Schwaller, Environmental and Technological Studies, College of Science and Engineering, to assess techniques of Focus Groups and develop a departmental model of how Focus Groups can be used within the department.

• Elizabeth Scheel, Sociology/Anthropology, College of Social Sciences, to assess the effectiveness of the criminology course

• Mary Anne Savage, Foreign Languages and Literature, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess the implementation of SOPI (Simulated Oral Proficiency Interview), a standardized instrument for assessing language proficiency at various levels of learning.

• Charles Rose, Environmental and Technological Studies, College of Science and Engineering, to conduct a survey of the employment expectations of environmental studies minor undergraduates.

• Judith Litterst and Paula Tompkins, Speech Communication, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess the fundamentals of speech communication core objectives.

• Sandra Keith, Mathematics, College of Science and Engineering, to assess writing an advising booklet with advise for General Education advisors.

• Philip Keith, English, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to assess and remedy both short term and long term problems in General Education Advising.

• Shawn Jarvis and Isolde Mueller, Foreign Languages, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to implement the use of SOPI for evaluating German speaking proficiency.

• Tommie Jackson, English, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to develop a writing portfolio.

• Chris Inkster, Learning Resource and Technology Services, College of Education, to determine current and needed technology skills of SCSU pre-service teachers.

• Linda Havir, Sociology and Anthropology, College of Social Sciences, to assess student perceptions of their achievement at time of graduation.

• Carolyn G. Hartz, Philosophy, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to gather and assess information on alumni perceptions of program effectiveness.

• Ceil Fillenworth, Academic Learning center, Student life and development, to compare effectiveness of learning assessment instruments to enhance success of At-Risk students.

• Elaine Davis, College of Business , to assess core, major, minor and master’s program performance.

• Shelly Brundage, Communication Disorders, College of Fine Arts and Humanities, to revise the Graduate Student Survey Form.

• Julie Andrzejewski, Human Relations and Multicultural Education, College of Education, to develop admission essay assessment and exit interview of graduates in the Master of Science in Social Responsibility.

• Julie Andrzejewski, Human Relations and Multicultural Education, College of Education, to assess general education multicultural, gender and minority (MGM) class.

• Anthony Akubue, Environmental and Technology studies, College of Science and Engineering, to research and adapt “exit interview” methods for planning and self review.

The Assessment Office would like to congratulate the following recipients of assessment mini-grants for 1996-97:

• Julie Andrzejewski, human relations, (COE) to survey graduates of the minor to determine their current goals as well as knowledge and skills gained from the program;

• Gretchen Starks-Martin , counseling center, to measure study strategies of Reading 110 students, using computer assisted inventory;

• Sandra Johnson , mathematics, (COST) to discover the correlation's between variables of interest of students in entry-level math courses and their mathematics success;

• Steve Hoover , applied psychology, (COE) to validate student outcomes for applied psychology students and to involve students and staff in the modification of the APSY program for semester conversion;

• Terrance Peterson and Kim Schulze , applied psychology, (COE) to assess the level of skills attained, relevance of and satisfaction with the program, and demographics of students who have graduated from the counseling or behavior analysis programs;

• Anthony Akubue , environmental and technological studies, (COST) to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the portfolio method and its obstacles to implementation;

• Brad Sleeper , MGM, (COB) to assess the College of Business performance in knowledge acquisition, skill development and student support from the perspective of exiting seniors;

• Donald Neu , chemistry, (COST) to develop an exit survey and an alumni survey to help realign the program to meet the students needs;

• Dick Andzenge , criminal justice studies, (COSS) to examine the extent of which the bachelor of arts meets the needs of the students, the professional community and whether or not it is keeping pace with other colleges;

• Tony Schwaller , environmental and technological studies, (COST) to redesign the departmental survey to include only Technology Education Graduates and use the responses to help develop the new program structure for the department;

• Lisa Heinrich and Robie McDonnell , mass communications (CFAH) to conduct a self evaluation of the master's program to determine the best way to meet the needs of the students;

• Linda Havir and Kay Banister Schaffer , sociology, (COSS) to develop an instrument to measure the effectiveness of computer assisted learning;

• James Sherohman , sociology, (COSS) to translate the learning goals of the sociology center into objectives and identify how the courses address these objectives;

• Carl Buraglio , health and traffic safety, (COE) to adapt existing software allowing for implementation of an electronic student portfolio;

• Luke Tripp , American studies, (COSS) to develop a supplementary critical thinking component to the general education survey to measure the students perception of their achievement in higher-order thinking;

• Eleanore Stokes , gerontology, (COSS) to implement techniques of data collection for the Career Preparation Phase Objective and to implement the first phase of assessment for external review;

• David DeGroote and Barb Raymond , biological sciences, (COST) to conduct a summative evaluation of biology programs by graduates of the department;

• Dick Andzenge , criminal justice studies, (COSS) to examine the extent of which the bachelor of elective studies and the criminal justice major meets the needs of the students, the professional community and whether or not it is keeping pace with other colleges.