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In practical terms, annual assessment serves two primary functions:

• Continuous improvement and growth. Good assessment will lead to students learning more, or more efficiently, and lead to better, or more efficient teaching. You and your students benefit from thoughtful, guided, regular reflection and adjustment of teaching and learning practices based on measurable data and deliberate planning.[CM1]
• Accountability to the students, to the state, to the institution, and to yourself.

There are many frameworks for effective professional reflection, and assessment is just one of them.

At least one program learning outcome must be assessed each year such that all learning outcomes are assessed within a 3 to 5-year period. Once all learning outcomes are assessed, the cycle begins again.

Each year, the program coordinator must submit a report detailing the assessment activities, including results and identified improvements, for the previous academic year by October 31.

The is always open for reporting. However, departments begin submitting annual reports for each academic year at the end of the spring semester. 

No. A course grade is generally based on content and assessments that correspond to multiple program learning outcomes. Course grades do not allow program faculty to determine levels of achievement for each of these outcomes separately. Additionally, course grades may not always relate only to student achievement. Often, such things as effort, attendance, class participation, and group work are incorporated into a final grade.

Undergraduate and graduate certificate programs, baccalaureate programs, and graduate and professional programs are all subject to annual assessment reporting requirements and will appear in the annual academic program assessment reporting system (AAPAR powered by Weave). Minors and micro-credentials are not included in these requirements currently.

Minors and micro-credentials are currently not subject to annual assessment reporting requirements as they are not designated as an “award” to the student. The only programs subject to annual academic reporting requirements are those that result in an “award” to the student, such a certificate or a degree.

Low enrollment status is reserved for programs that have experienced enrollment or retention issues resulting in enrollments of five or fewer students for the last five years. Even if your program is low enrollment program, it is still visible in AAPAR. Programs with a low enrollment status should include program planning that addresses the low enrollment.

• Validity and Value: The validity of every student's degree and their potential as an employee is highly influenced by the source school of the degree; if a school is not accredited, or is accredited by a questionable agency, then the value of the student's education drops precipitously. Thus, the value of the instruction drops, and with it, enrollment.
• Financial Aid: Attending an unaccredited program can disqualify a student from federal financial aid. Considering the number of UB students who depend on federal financial aid to attend, not maintaining our accreditation status would be a life-altering financial and professional blow to current students and significantly disincentivize new students from attending.
• Our Accrediting Body: UB is accredited by the . As an organization recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education, MSCHE has the authority to determine if the University of Buffalo and its programs are adequately meeting and maintaining the high level of standards it claims to meet.
• Additional Accreditation: Some other programs, such as and programs, are accredited by the governing board of their profession.

For a comprehensive history and explanation of standards of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, we strongly recommend .

Program coordinators should be familiar with the purpose of MSCHE Accreditation for the University of Buffalo.

MSCHE provides oversight to degree-granting institutions to ensure the institution and the programs within are indeed providing the quality education the institution is claiming to provide and provides broad standards defining "quality education." Every eight years, evaluators representing MSCHE visit institutions to evaluate the quality of the institution based on . All programs of and departments of an institution contribute to a self-study report, collecting evidence and providing narrative along with that evidence to demonstrate their compliance with the MSCHE standards.

of the MSCHE standards concerns effective educational assessment. Per the standard, "Assessment of student learning and achievement demonstrates that the institution’s students have accomplished educational goals consistent with their program of study, degree level, the institution’s mission, and appropriate expectations for institutions of higher education." Quality assessment happens continuously, not every 8 years. Thus, it is part of the mission of the Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation to ensure:

1. Institutional-level assessment of student learning;
2. Integration of annual and periodic assessment processes; and
3. Campus leadership for educational assessment and continuous improvement activities.

CATT and its staff provide resources, consultation, and guidance to all UB programs to ensure quality assessment occurs to support programmatic quality and ensure compliance with MSCHE Standard V.

Yes.  All academic programs that result in an “award” (either a certificate or degree) are subject to the requirements of annual assessment reporting. If you have completed an assessment of learning outcomes for accreditation and have written up your assessment findings in an accreditation report, you can simply copy and paste information from your document into the appropriate AAPAR fields. You may also request assistance with the data entry process below:

By assessing one learning outcome each year, programs that are subject to Comprehensive Program Review will assess their entire program by the time of the next review. The holistic report for assessment of all learning outcomes will be included as an appendix in the program review self-study, and a section of the self-study will require the department to reflect on this assessment and describe strengths and areas for improvement, along with a plan for those improvements.

Since CATT must pull aggregated reports for all of UB, the assessment information must be entered into the discrete fields in the annual academic program assessment reporting system (AAPAR powered by Weave). You can simply copy and paste information from your document into the appropriate AAPAR fields.  You can request assistance with this process below: