How are Faculty Rewarded and Recognized for Assessment Work Outside the Classroom?

Elizabeth E. Smith and Sarah Gordon   |    Volume Fourteen  |   

Although faculty are an important part of collecting, analyzing, and using student learning data for improvement, significant barriers often prevent faculty from being involved in assessment work outside the classroom. One potential obstacle to faculty involvement in assessment is the misalignment between the work and faculty rewards structures. Through a multi-level sequential development mixed methods study, this paper addresses a gap in the assessment literature by describing how faculty are rewarded and recognized for assessment work outside the classroom. Stipends and course releases, food and drinks at assessment meetings, promotion and tenure consideration, and general campus exposure were the rewards most frequently described by faculty participants. Administrators seeking to improve faculty engagement in assessment work should consider creating specific policies permitting assessment work to be included in the promotion and tenure process to both recognize the importance of assessment work and reward faculty for participating in such efforts.

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