LEAP

Reports of the assessment work completed initially by the Student Learning Committee, and now by the Learning, Equity, and Assessment Program (LEAP), are shared each semester with the Department Chairs. An overview of all reports is provided to Academic Cabinet at the end of each academic year in the Office of Academic Assessment's Annual Report.

As we move forward with Canvas Outcomes, OAA's goal is to create student learning assessment dashboards that will be shared with the Emerson community, enabling faculty, staff, and administrators to see the student learning data that is most relevant to their work.

LEAP is committed to implementing equity-minded assessment practices across Emerson College.  

What is equity mindedness?

"The Center for Urban Education coined the term equity-mindedness to refer to the mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who are willing to assess their own racialized assumptions, to acknowledge their lack of knowledge in the history of race and racism, to take responsibility for the success of historically underserved and minoritized student groups, and to critically assess racialization in their own practices as educators and/or administrators." From Equity Talk to Equity Walk, 2020, p. 20.

What is equity-minded assessment?

Practicing equity-minded assessment means avoiding a deficit-mindset that assumes students' poor performance is due to underpreparation, lack of academic study skills, first language, academic background, and/or other identity categories. Deficit-minded thinking views "shortcomings [as] a 'natural' outcome of...students' backgrounds," and assumes that "addressing attendant inequities requires compensatory programs that 'fix' students and teach them how to assimilate into the dominant college culture." From Equity Talk to Equity Walk, 2020, p. 46.

In contrast, equity-minded assessment looks at opportunity gaps; practitioners examine how assessments are created and how data is gathered and analyzed in order to identify systems and spaces where students do not have equal opportunities to be successful.  

Elements of equity-minded assessment

Equity-minded assessment entails the following actions:

1. Check biases and ask reflective questions throughout the assessment process to address assumptions and positions of privilege.
2. Use multiple sources of evidence appropriate for the students being assessed and assessment effort.
3. Include student perspectives and take action based on perspectives.
4. Increase transparency in assessment results and actions taken.
5. Ensure collected data can be meaningfully disaggregated and interrogated.
6. Make evidence-based changes that address issues of equity that are context-specific.

Source: https://www.learningoutcomesassessment.org/equity/