Get Involved

Do you LOVE student affairs assessment, even if it’s not your full-time job? Join the Commission for Assessment & Evaluation to stay up-to-date with all things higher education assessment.

Upcoming Events

CAE Awards

Leadership

The Directorate Board

Our Directorate Board is made up of a variety of people all who are dedicated to helping us accomplish our mission. Each year the Directorate board develops teams, sets goals for each team and members work year-round to accomplish their goals. This year’s goals include having fun, developing educational sessions targeted at new and mid-level professionals, developing our on-line tools and resources, providing educational sessions at Convention and solidifying our communications plans. If you like to write about assessment, plan or facilitate education sessions, help us better utilize social media or just want to learn more about assessment while applying your event planning or communication skills, consider running for our Directorate board.

Resources

The Assessment Skills and Knowledge Standards

The ASK (Assessment Skills and Knowledge) Content Standards were developed by the Commission on Assessment and Evaluation to to articulate the areas of content knowledge, skill and dispositions that student affairs professionals need in order to perform as practitioner-scholars to assess the degree to which students are mastering the learning and development outcomes we intend as professionals. The ASK Standards can be used as a standalone resource to support development of assessment capabilities, or as a supplement to other materials (e.g., the ACPA/NASPA Professional Competencies). An overview of the ASK Standards is provided below and is also available in the ACPA Member Resource Center.

• The ACPA ASK Content Standards

• Assessment in Practice: A Companion Guide to the ASK Standards

• ASK Needs Assessment

Recent Scholarship from CAE

As part of its mission to advance student affairs assessment, CAE participates in a variety of scholarship projects. Below are recent examples of scholarship led by the Commission.

Higher Education Assessment Syllabi Project

A joint effort across several associations, this project analyzed over 100 syllabi from higher education and student affairs assessment courses to provide a starting point for conceptualizing trends across these courses and thinking about the future of assessment in the higher education and student affairs context.

• View the article in the Journal of Student Affairs Inquiry, Improvement, and Impact (JSAIII)
• View the white paper.

New Directions Issue

Past CAE chairs Dr. Kellie Dixon and Dr. Alice Mitchell, along with several CAE Directorate Board members, led the creation of a New Directions for Student Services issue focused on assessment practices to leverage equity.

• Read the New Directions for Student Services special issue.

Past Webinars

Strategies for Familiarizing Yourself with Your Dept. and Institution’s Assessment Culture

Starting a new role in a new place can be overwhelming. Between understanding expectations for your new role, exploring team dynamics, and finding your way around campus, it is also important to get a sense of the culture of your department, division, and institution. It is likely the culture around assessment drives how your new colleagues define and measure success. This webinar will detail strategies that professionals new to a department or institution can apply in order to learn more about the assessment culture on their campus.

Commission History

Originally titled “Commission IX”, the Commission for Assessment & Evaluation (CAE) was among the first eleven functional areas recognized by ACPA in 1961. Over the course of over fifty years, the Commission has continued to grow, benefiting from forward-thinking leadership and an involved membership.

In 1986, Marcia Baxter Magolda chronicled the Commission’s 25-year history and, in conclusion, noted:

“…while activities have changed over the history of the Commission, the major focus during each period accurately reflected the needs of the profession at the time.”

Since Baxter Magolda’s reflective piece, the landscape of assessment in higher education, in general, and student affairs, in particular, has changed dramatically. Calls for higher education reform took hold late in the decade of the ‘80s and grew powerfully through the 1990s. Increasing demands for institutional accountability left colleges and universities, as well as accrediting agencies, scrambling for means to demonstrate what students were learning. Grades and graduation rates – albeit important – no longer sufficed as indicators of learning. Student affairs professionals needed to be able to demonstrate co-curricular student learning and development as well as efforts to improve practice based on evidence.

The Commission’s focus shifted has shifted towards student learning and institutional improvement. Efforts to enhance assessment skill capacity for student affairs professionals continued to grow as primary focal point for the Commission.

Past Chairs (in reverse chronological order): Paul Holliday-Millard (2025 – Present), Tori Rehr (2023-2025), Kellie Dixon (2021-2023), Martha Glass (2019-2021), Victoria Livingston (2017-2019), Kristen McKinney (2015-2019), Amanda Knerr (2013-2015), Kim Yousey-Elsener (2011-2013), Becki Elkins (2009-2011), Gavin Henning (2007-2009), Alice Mitchell (2005-2007), Ed Grandpre (2003-2005), Siu-Man “Raymond” Ting (2001-2003), Gypsy Denzine (1999-2001), James Worth Pickering (1997-1999), Janet Schmidt (1995-1997), Leellen Brigman (1993-1995), Sharon Bowman (1991-1993), David White (1989-1991), William Porterfield (1987-1989), Marcia B. Baxter Magolda (1985-1987), Patricia King (1983-1985), Howard Tinsley (1981-1983), Gary Rankin (1979-1981), Oscar Lenning (1977-1979), Marvalene Styles Hughes (1975-1977), Gary Hanson (1973-1975), James E. Brandt (1971-1973), Leo A. Munday (1969-1971), Phelon J. Malouf (1967-1969), James S. Weeks (1966-1967), Leo Goldman (1964-1966), Samuel Baskin (1962-1964), Donald W. Robinson (1961-1962)