We need to determine student grit factors and train students how to build grit. Colleges need a holistic assessment solution. Markle presented Success Navigator. He said that the Accuplacer exam is a good place to start, but it needs to be paired with another assessment to determine factors that will help predict whether students will be successful in college.
What are these factors? Markle discussed academic skills, commitment, self-management, and social support. The CSFI exam that is in the MindTap version of the OnCourse textbook measures for the following: responsibility and control, competition, task planning, expectations, wellness, time management, college involvement, precision, and persistence.
What really caught my ear, so to speak, is the fact that Success Navigator is piloting a new Writing Exam to help English departments to create an essay asking about these factors. Students who want to challenge their Accuplacer score can write an essay with a prompt that purposefully targets these areas. English faculty can score the exam for Writing ability, and Success Navigator's exam can score for these noncognitive skills. By doing so, students who are just under the cut score for the next higher English course can be given credit for high scores in noncognitive skills.
Please consider moving forward with some kind of noncognitive skill exam into the future here at Yavapai College as we continue to find a better Pathway for our students.
Sincerely,
Tina Luffman
I like this idea, Tina, because I do think that these skills are heavy determinants of student success. However, I wonder how capable students are at self-assessing these skills. For example, I do a pre-class survey of my ENG 100 students and ask them what grade they anticipate they will receive in the class. Almost everyone says "A," while only a small portion of those students will actually earn and A. I also think this is complicated further if students know that they are being assessed on their answers to these questions. They know that they will be perceived as "better" students if they portray themselves as having little anxiety and stress and high confidence in their ability to succeed. It is like going to a job interview and saying that your biggest weakness is being "too organized" or something like that. When we know that our answer have weight in determining something important, we are very unlikely to portray ourselves in a negative light.
ReplyDeleteHi Laura,
ReplyDeleteYes, I understand your comments here about students' ability to self-assess. Success Navigator asks the students a broad set of questions that are directly related to specific areas for each part of the rubric. When asking the direct questions such ask "How many hours per week do you work?" or "How much does your family support your decision to go to college?" to come up with the score for each area. That does help rather than just asking a student if their family supports them.
I hope this explanation helps.
Thanks!
Tina
What an interesting innovative way to assess student study and success skills. I wonder if we could go a step further and re-enforce these skills in some way. Your essay writing in English is perfect so I wonder if there is some alternative in math and other subject areas?? Thanks for the great information
ReplyDelete