PRELIMINARY PLAN LEAP Wisconsin Assessment

PRELIMINARY PLAN – LEAP Wisconsin Assessment Evaluating LEAP Wisconsin, the UW System’s decade-long Liberal Education Initiative

Charge UW System President Ray Cross has charged Rebecca Karoff, Senior Special Assistant to the Senior Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs, with conducting an assessment of the UW System’s more than ten-year-old Liberal Education initiative, LEAP Wisconsin. The resulting report will be shared with UW System leadership, institutional leadership and the Board of Regents.

LEAP Wisconsin Steering Committee With the support of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, a steering committee has been convened to determine the scope of and process for the assessment, and will also be involved in conducting the assessment. In addition, the Steering Committee will provide direction into the System’s future LEAP Wisconsin work, including its newest project, Faculty Collaboratives, a Lumina-funded, AAC&U project focused on building faculty capacity around proficiency-based reform efforts. The Steering Committee has 20 members from 12 (of 15) UW institutions, including provosts, assistant and associate vice chancellors, deans and associate deans, assessment coordinators, faculty and others.

Members are expected to participate in monthly phone meetings and 2-4 in-person meetings throughout the duration of the project.

Timeline (anticipated) LEAP Assessment: February-December 2015 Faculty Collaboratives: Winter 2015-Summer 2016

Assessment Areas (likely and potential) Likely and potential areas to be surveyed, catalogued and assessed include:  Value-added of, and/or what difference System leadership has made on the initiative in Wisconsin (information requested by President Cross);  Programmatic assessment at System, institutional, and national levels (LEAP conferences, activities, events, outreach and advocacy in Wisconsin and nationally);  Institutional curricular reform efforts (adoption of learning outcomes, curriculum mapping, General Education revision, implementation of high-impact practices or HIPs, gateway course reform, integration of academic and student affairs, etc.);  Evidence of the impact of LEAP Wisconsin on student learning and success (student data disaggregated across student populations, use of VALUE rubrics and other assessment practices, DQP use);  Policy changes motivated by and/or contributing to LEAP (curricular and assessment policies, faculty rewards system, program development and evaluation, systemwide adoption of learning goals and quality framework, accountability reporting, Board of Regents, etc.);  Budgetary decisions motivated by and/or contributing to LEAP (funding towards curricular revision, student affairs and support, professional development, outreach and advocacy);

Preliminary Guiding Principles 1. The assessment process will work to capture the breadth and distinctiveness of each UW’s LEAP work, recognizing that not all the change work focused on student success engaged in by the UW System is called LEAP or was motivated by it. 2. Inputs and outputs, as well as process and products will be identified and assessed. 3. Recognizing that UW institutions are already engaged in significant assessment work of their own, efforts will be made to limit the burden on UW institutions throughout this process, including limiting surveying of faculty and staff. 4. Mixed methods assessment will be used, including, as appropriate, qualitative (surveys, focus groups of faculty, staff and students), and quantitative methods. 5. Existing metrics already in place at UW institutions and UW System will be used, and additional metrics will be identified, as appropriate.

Alignment with the Faculty Collaboratives Project  The Faculty Collaboratives project is designed to identify, evaluate, and disseminate existing and emerging UW System and institutional student engagement initiatives focused on preparing students for meaningful lives and success in the 21st-century knowledge-based, global society.  Four LEAP Fellows appointed to advance faculty participation, collaboration, and leadership in AAC&U’s family of proficiency-based, change initiatives.  LEAP Fellows will serve on the Steering Committee.

Background LEAP Wisconsin is:  the University of Wisconsin System’s quality agenda and a blueprint for the essential learning UW students should have as they prepare to take their places in the 21st-century knowledge- based, global society;  a shared conversation about the purpose and value of liberal education throughout the UW System and parts of Wisconsin;  a broad and coordinated set of activities, delivered statewide through campus action and public advocacy and outreach; and  a way to be intentional about achieving Inclusive Excellence, the joint pursuit of equity and excellence as a shared responsibility and core to the mission of the UW System.

In 2005, the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) named the University of Wisconsin System its pilot partner in moving its Liberal Education and America’s Promise—or LEAP— Campaign forward. Wisconsin thus became the first pilot state for AAC&U’s public advocacy and campus-based activities known as the LEAP States Initiative. Since that time, the UW System and institutions have instituted curricular and co-curricular reform efforts and convened scores of discussions, meetings, forums, and conferences focused on LEAP and the role of public higher education—in Wisconsin and beyond—in the 21st century global society.

LEAP and Inclusive Excellence are critical components of the UW System’s goals for quality educational attainment. Their shared purpose helps to realize the System’s abiding commitment that more—and more diverse—students have access to, persist through, and complete high-quality undergraduate degrees. LEAP Steering Committee – February 2015

Convened to provide leadership on the assessment of LEAP Wisconsin (the UW System’s Liberal Education Initiative), the AAC&U Faculty Collaboratives grant project in which the UW System is playing a lead role, and the future of LEAP Wisconsin.

Name Institution Title Email 1 Greg Cook UW-Whitewater Associate Vice Chancellor [email protected] 2 Paula DeHart UW-Stevens Point Assessment Coordinator [email protected] 3 Meridith Drzakowski UW-Stout Assistant Chancellor for [email protected] Planning, Assessment, Research & Quality 4 Jennifer Fager UW-Eau Claire Director of Assessment and [email protected] Professor of Education 5 Joe Foy UW Colleges Associate Vice Chancellor [email protected] 6 Scott Furlong UW-Green Bay Dean, College of Liberal [email protected] Arts & Sciences; Professor of Political Science 7 Peggy James UW-Parkside Professor of Political [email protected] Science; Faculty Collaboratives Hub Director 8 Julia Johnson UW-La Crosse Associate Dean, College of [email protected] Liberal Studies 9 Rebecca Karoff UW System Office of Senior Special Assistant to [email protected] Academic & Student the Senior Vice President Affairs 10 Bev Kopper UW-Whitewater Provost and Vice [email protected] Chancellor 11 Greg Lampe UW Colleges Provost and Vice [email protected] Chancellor 12 Jim Robinson UW-Parkside Director, Teaching & [email protected] Leaning Center 13 Glendali Rodriguez UW-Stout Associate Vice Chancellor [email protected] for Academic Affairs 14 Dale Splinter UW-Whitewater Associate Professor of [email protected] Geography 15 Angie Stombaugh UW-Eau Claire Director, Center for [email protected] Teaching and Learning and Professor of Nursing 16 Carleen Vande Zande UW-Oshkosh Associate Vice Chancellor [email protected] 17 Jolanda Vanderwal UW-Madison Chair, Department of [email protected] Taylor German and Professor of Dutch 18 Dev Venugopalan UW-Milwaukee Associate Vice Chancellor [email protected] 19 Nancy UW-Madison Senior Associate Dean, [email protected] Westphal-Johnson College of Letters & Science 20 Joanne Wilson UW-Platteville Assistant Vice Chancellor [email protected]

Revised March 18, 2015