the Student Affairs Assessment Institute is proudly sponsored by

ACPA’s Student Affairs Assessment Institute, sponsored by the Commission for Assessment and Evaluation, provides a guided, curricular experience where participants can develop essential assessment knowledge and skills for their professional toolkit. It offers a balance of instruction and hands-on experience designed to ensure attendees leave with the assessment skills and knowledge necessary to develop and execute quality assessment plans on their campuses.

Whether you are brand new to assessment, taking on new responsibilities in your individual unit, or charged with developing a division-wide plan for assessment, the ACPA Student Affairs Assessment Institute is the answer for your professional development needs! The Institute is focused on providing developmental assessment knowledge and may not be the best professional development opportunity for more advanced practitioners. If you are unsure whether or not the Institute may be right for you or have general questions, please contact [email protected] and we’ll be happy to assist!

institute tracks & features

Assessment Institute attendees have the opportunity to select their track when they register for the Institute, making the experience educationally catered to each registrants professional journey. Tracks help guide attendees session selections at the Institute based on their focus area or role with assessment.

The following tracks will be offered at the 2023 Institute:

• Foundations Track  – Sessions will be focused on building foundational assessment knowledge and skills for individuals with limited training or experience with assessment. If you’re new to assessment, regardless of your position, this is where to start. Topics include: assessment cycle, basic terminology, data ethics, writing learning and program outcomes, basic quantitative and qualitative methods, and reporting results.
• Practitioners Track – Sessions will be focused on expanding assessment knowledge and skills for individuals tasked with championing assessment for one or more departments. If you’ve done some assessment but want to improve your ability to meet the assessment element of your job description, this is for you. Topics include: more advanced quantitative and qualitative methods, survey design, interviews & focus groups, data cleaning and analysis, and data visualization.
• Administrator Track – Sessions will be focused on supplementing assessment knowledge and skills for leaders of a department, division, college, or university. If you’ve done some assessment but want to build your application of assessment as a unit leader, this is for you. Topics include: strategic planning, prioritization, alignment with campus partners, storytelling, and using results.

Equity-Centered Keynote

Leveraging Assessment to Advance Equity in College

Despite the diversification of college student populations, inequity in access, retention, and graduation continues. Higher education institutions have employed a number of programs and services to address diversity, equity, and inclusion, but still the goals of equity remain unfulfilled. Assessment can be a valuable tool to explore inequities on campus and move to remedy them. But assessment itself is not apolitical or objective and the approaches we use and the mindfulness with which we conduct assessment can advance equity in higher education or perpetuate inequities and cause harm. This session will highlight the critical role of cultivating individual awareness as assessors; discuss the context and scholarly history of equity-centered and equity-minded assessment; share frameworks for considering various approaches to centering equity in assessment; and provide some examples of practice and resources. Participants will have an opportunity to reflect on how their current assessment practice centers equity and consider where they have influence to impact systemic change via more equitable and equity-centered assessment.

Learning Outcomes

1. Describe key characteristics of equity-centered assessment
2. Identify at least three types of equity-minded or equity-centered assessment
3. Consider their role as assessors in advancing equity
4. Apply at least four equity-centered assessment strategies

Keynote Speakers

Inclusion-Centered Keynote

Building Capacity for Greater Inclusion in Our Work

When it comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, do you ever get stuck? Don’t want to mess it up? Wonder what are the “right” words to use or actions to take? Take a deep breath. While there is no quick fix or one size fits all approach, there are daily opportunities to engage our work with greater inclusion. This keynote will provide content, strategies and tools to increase self-awareness and knowledge around identity, power, privilege and oppression to take back to your campuses for practice and more practice.

Keynote Speaker

dr. becky martinez is a Mixed Race, Mixed Class Woman of Color and has learned to hold the dynamic of “both/and” due to these particular identities. She is a proud aunt, friend, forever learner, person that likes to run, student of nature, fan of ice cream and hopes to always be in process. In her work as consultant, facilitator and coach centering social justice, becky values opportunities for people to find their humanity. She creates space for critical reflection and learning to increase self-awareness for sustainable movement and change with the understanding that systems are created and maintained by people, people have the capacity to change, and that change has the capacity to shift systems. Her work provides concepts, skills and tools to engage systems of power, privilege and oppression for more inclusive and equitable policies, practices, norms, structures and simply, ways of being.

She works with a range of groups within higher education and with non-profit organizations. She is a member with the Social Justice Training Institute, a Co-Lead Facilitator for LeaderShape, a Foundation Board member with the American College Personnel Association, Intercultural Development Inventory qualified administrator, a former certified trainer for the Gay, Lesbian

& Straight Education Network and counselor-advocate through Peace over Violence. While DEI-centered work is complex, complicated and sometimes messy, it is also joyous, soulful and liberating, and gets us and organizations closer to our shared humanity. On any given day, becky enjoys digging deep into the complexity of social class and class(ism) in inclusion work. She forever appreciates asking “what is your class story?” and is grateful for the rich accompanying stories that follow.. To learn more about dr. martinez and her work visit Infinity Martinez Consulting at www.infinitymartinez.com.

Registration Rates

Registrations can be paid by check, VISA, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express. All fees must be prepaid. Purchase orders are not accepted. Refunds will be given for cancellations, received in writing at ACPA by 21 May 2023. Cancellations must be sent to [email protected]. After 21 May 2023, there are no refunds. ACPA reserves the right to charge a service fee of US$50 for returned checks. Registrations are non-transferable. The conference may be canceled or postponed due to insufficient enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances. In this case, the fees will be fully refunded; however, ACPA will not be responsible for other additional costs, charges or expenses, including cancellation/change charges assessed by airlines and/or travel agencies.

Hotel Information

The host hotel for the 2023 Student Affairs Assessment Institute is the The Westin O’Hare, offering a nightly rate of $159.

Schedule

PRE-CONFERENCE

Tuesday, 20 June 2023

Day 1

Wednesday, 21 June 2023

Day 2

Thursday, 22 June 2023

Day 3

Friday, 23 June 2023