Rationale for Objective: Articulate and assume responsibility for one’s own work (Improve)

Most undergraduate alumni are satisfied with the education they were able to construct as Evergreen students (92 percent in the most recent assessment). Furthermore, Evergreen has seen welcome improvements recently in alumni satisfaction with advising, in terms of both the newly developed composite advising satisfaction indicator and its individual elements—the professional Academic Advising Office and academic advising by faculty. Ninety-six percent of transcripts showed evidence that graduates met the expectation that they articulate and assume responsibility for their own work. On the other hand, less than 10 percent of each graduating class for the past three years has completed a summative narrative evaluation for their transcripts and end-of-year self-evaluations are less consistent in both quantity and quality. Evergreen undergraduates are responsible for designing their own pathways through the curriculum to earn their degree, and they do not earn formal majors, thus it is particularly important that students articulate their understanding of the choices and pathways they have taken in order to communicate both academic content and level of their accomplishments. In November 2011, the faculty passed a resolution requiring students to write a synthetic academic statement for their transcript. The final academic statement will add clarity to students’ official records for external audiences and transparency regarding their own articulation of the path they created to earn their liberal arts degree. Improved structures for faculty advising and an electronic repository providing access to the documents representing the student’s academic career are being proposed to support this requirement. [Update summer 2013: The college built an enhanced approach to faculty advising into its Academic Statement Initiative, piloted in academic year 2012-13 for implementation beginning fall 2013. While not yet fully implemented, work on the electronic repository is well underway.]

Summary of Indicators for Core Theme 2, Objective 3 (PDF)

• Indicator 1: Learning outcome: Responsibility for work
• Indicator 2: Academic Statement
• Indicator 3: Alumni satisfaction: Advising
• Indicator 4: Alumni satisfaction: Education

View key sources of data used to measure the indicators