Running head: AREAS FOR GROWTH 1

Areas for Growth After SDA

Mitchell Catalano

Seattle University
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Learning Outcome Narrative Areas of Growth (Learning Outcomes 1,2,7,8,9; Artifacts

C1, C2, C3, F, G)

Integrative Theme: Culture of Assessment

Before my time in the Student Development Administration (SDA) program, including

assessment in my practice seemed out of reach. Adding well strategized and measurable

evaluations of my programs or students experiences was a bigger picture than I could paint. To

include this in my professional practice, I looked to the outcomes of SDA and chose to focus on

development in this area, confident that my experience in the program would provide the skills I

needed to learn. In my efforts to meet competency in this area, I learned that as much as

assessment is about evaluation, it is equally about telling stories (Yousey-Elsener, et al., 2015).

Telling the stories of our work in student development is ongoing, and in that vain, I will

continue to build a culture of assessment in my professional practice and within the institutions

at which that growth will occur.

The literature defines a culture of assessment as, a set of pervasive actions and

behaviors by staff across an organization focusing on the use of data in decisions making

regarding accountability and improvement of program and services (Yousey-Elsener, et al.,

2015, pp. 11). While this is a broad definition, I am confident that the knowledge I have gained

during the SDA program will help me to successfully build that set of actions and behaviors.

Three areas in which I can apply this knowledge as I grow as a professional include assessment

and evaluation practice, collaboration through best practices, and understanding the emerging

nature of assessment.

Assessment and Evaluation Practice (Learning Outcomes 7, 8; Artifacts C3, F, G)

Defining Dimensions: professional practice, professional development, research

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Commitment to practicing assessment in profession supports our ability to support

student success in a measured and proven manner. As I have grown professionally during the

SDA program, I have recognized this reality and have begun work to incorporate it into my own

practice. Acknowledging its importance in my practice has consequently informed my plans for

professional development. Furthermore, research conducted during my coursework strengthened

my reflections about how to best utilize assessment and continue that best practice as a

professional.

During an internship with the University of Washingtons Evans School of Public Policy

and Governance, I was given my first opportunity to engage directly in assessment work.

Artifact G contains an assessment of the schools summer orientation program on which I

collaborated with administrators within the student services unit. This project was one that I

asked for directly and was able to take on through the trust of my internship site supervisors and

other colleagues in the department. They identified a need to collect more meaningful data from

their students about orientation, and I worked with the institutional researcher for the school in

building an assessment that measured identified outcomes of that student program. Through this

project, I successfully completed a process of assessment inclusive of learning outcomes,

collaboration, measurement tools, and data analysis. My goal will be to find similar opportunities

to complete this type of work in professional positions in the future.

Related to my professional future, the success of that experience has driven me to find

avenues to strengthen this knowledge and to discover new and promising practices. Artifact F

constructs a brief scaffolding of opportunities with which I can engage to broaden my knowledge

of assessment practices and continue to implement that into my professional practice.

Comprising this list of opportunities is itself a practice of assessing my professional needs and
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synthesizing plans to create that story of professional development moving forward. Focusing

my immediate professional development in this way is additionally demonstrative of my

commitment to utilizing assessment that is so crucial to creating personal and collegial cultures

of assessment.

Finally, research as demonstrated in Artifact C3 about best practices in assessment

across the Puget Sound region created a larger framework within which I identified this area as

one of continued growth. The institutions focused upon in that research were keen to

demonstrate how past assessment practices informed those currently happening. Utilizing these

alongside the ever-evolving needs of their student populations informed their own cultures of

assessment. Synthesizing field notes with assessment literature helped me to recognize the

fluidity of assessment both institutionally and personally. To manage this fluidity, I recognize

that I must maintain current knowledge of assessment and be sure to understand the nexus

between the culture of assessment at my institutions and in my professional practice.

My own commitment to assessment practice demonstrated in these experiences provides

a preview of how I aim to center the utilization of assessment as a professional (Learning

Outcome 7). Finding practical opportunities for assessment guided by knowledge from my

professional development and continued research into this area will provide me with continued

growth opportunities. Furthermore, engaging in this process will challenge me to effectively

interpret data for my own practice and to effectively communicate findings in presentations and

in writing for my colleagues (Learning Outcome 8) in order to demonstrate how assessment can

guide the evolution of our institutional and professional cultures.

Collaboration through Best Practices (Learning Outcomes 2,9; Artifacts C2, C3, G)

Defining dimensions: theory to practice, professional practice, research

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Building the capacity for assessment requires professionals to collaborate across

boundaries and be aware of the needs of multiple stakeholders (Yousey-Elsener, et al., 2015).

My brief experience completing assessment and evaluation work, this idea has been continuously

reflected. Academic course work evaluating best practices (Artifact C3), completing an

assessment project itself (Artifact G), and engaging with primary research surrounding

assessment practices (Artifact G) have made clear the importance of centering collaboration

within best practices of any one function or area.

Artifact C2 contains a collaborative theory to practice paper about the continued

development of the Seattle Youth Initiative (SUYI). Our group analysis of how to best support a

middle school pre-college summer program equally balanced theory to practice with best

practices in this area. Centralizing Yossos (2005) community cultural wealth model, our group

collectively evaluated how the structure of pre-college programs utilized the ranging capital of

its students to create a meaningful bridge towards college success. In those evaluations, we

equally weighed the success of programs like that we aimed to devise. In this process, we

centered the value of students and their success (Learning Outcome 2) in synthesizing needs,

theory, and best practices. Reflecting on this project, I recognize that our work was a microcosm

of the type of collaboration crucial to assessment in our field. On a much larger scale, this type of

collaboration is what I will reach for as I grow in my development of assessment practices.

Artifact Gs illustration of an assessment project completed at the Evans School of

Public Policy and Governance was not something I created on my own terms. Its development

included collective decisions of the outcomes it needed to address, how to collect data about

those outcomes, what tools were to be used to complete that work, and how the final report

would be released to stakeholders interested in its findings. In each step, I had to engage
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stakeholders in a wide range of administrative levels and functional units. To construct an

assessment useful to each of these areas, I had to understand the leadership and governance

structure of the school and identify what needs along that spectrum this assessment would meet.

At the same time, the project most importantly weighed the needs of students, helping these

stakeholders to better understand their needs. This was a best practice at this school, and abiding

by it provided me with a concrete example of engaging directly in Learning Outcomes 2 and 9

as well as a professional experience from which I can draw as assessment practice continues in

my career.

The crucial role collaboration plays in any assessment project is also substantiated by my

research into assessment best practices. As demonstrated in Artifact G, observing the cultures of

assessment at several Puget Sound institutions demonstrated the scope of stakeholders included

in assessment procedures. At each institution, outcomes of their assessment projects called upon

colleagues across divisional and functional areas. Effectively communicating the goals of their

assessments was an identifiable best practice in collaboration itself. Most certainly it will be that

kind of effective. Audience-specific communication which I will centralize in my assessment

practice.

Emerging Nature of Assessment (Learning Outcome 1; Artifacts C3, G)

Defining dimensions: professional practice, research

In all the work outlined in this reflection, one final piece of learning strikes me most. In

both my professional practice with assessment and research surrounding the subject, I recognize

how it continues to be an emerging issue in higher education. As an example, Artifact G was

created only after my site supervisors and their colleagues recognized a need for assessment

practice in their office. The research demonstrated by Artifact C3 was completed in line with a
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course whose main object was to learn more about emerging practices in key functional areas of

student affairs. Even assessment literature describes the past two decades of assessment work in

our field as, uneven, random, and idiosyncratic (Yousey-Elsener, et al., 2015, pp. xi). The

continual emergence of this area of higher education makes it even more crucial for my

professional future to recognize it as a constant opportunity for growth and development.

The emerging nature of the student affairs profession is a difficult idea to grapple with.

Theory, research, professional practice, and professional development are all continuously

emerging parts of the field. In observing myself throughout this program, I have identified a

sustainable strategy to maintain professional integrity and dedication in a highly dynamic field.

To focus on one crucial emerging issue that encapsulates my own professional practice as well as

that of the field. This has been the method with which I have expressed Learning Outcome 1

during my time in the SDA program and it will remain an important part of my practice.

Conclusion

Considering all that I have learned during the SDA program, there is still room for growth

as a professional as I conclude this experience. My learning has demonstrated that the area

where I have the most room for growth is building a culture of assessment in my professional

practice and I have recognized how a culture of assessment includes multiple SDA learning

outcomes and is infused in multiple personal artifacts. I will create these opportunities for

growth in practices and knowledge already gained through this program. Namely, finding more

opportunities for assessment, utilizing collaboration and best practice in those projects, and

recalling the dynamic and emerging nature of student affairs assessment. These will become my

own best practices for investing in my growth as a professional moving out of the SDA program.
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References

Yosso, T.J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race discussion of community cultural

wealth. Race, Ethnicity, and Education. 8(1). 69-82

Yousey-Elsener, K., Bentrim, E. M., & Henning, G. W. (Eds.). (2015). Coordinating student

affairs divisional assessment: a practical guide. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing, LLC