MCLA Awarded $225K Grant Toward Assessment
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The three-year grant will support a range of activities intended to strengthen the college's assessment of its academic and student life programs. This is the second time the foundation has awarded a grant to the college. In 2004, its funding helped establish an Academic Technology Center, where faculty members receive training to support technological initiatives in the classroom.
In addition, this latest grant will partially fund a new position at MCLA, an associate dean for assessment and planning. The dean will work with faculty, staff and administrators to develop and launch a Center for Teaching and Learning. This center will offer professional development and training programs for faculty, provide data to support curriculum development and produce reports on institutional progress.
"We are very pleased to receive the support of the Davis Educational Foundation," said Monica Joslin, dean of academic affairs. "We have built a solid foundation guided by our strategic plan and the work of our Retention Task Force. This funding will allow us to continue to strengthen student learning and assessment of the living, learning community at MCLA."
The grant from the Davis Foundation complements a range of activities under way at MCLA. Last year, it implemented an e-portfolio system that enables students to document their work electronically, and faculty and administrators to review learning outcomes and guide improvements in courses and programs. The tool also provides the opportunity to assess co-curricular experiences undertaken by students such as internships, campus leadership, and volunteer service initiatives.
In addition, the work completed during the grant period will position MCLA for its next accreditation review by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, the regional accrediting agency. The work done at MCLA with the support of the Davis Foundation grant will also establish best practices that other institutions can use to model their own assessment programs, said Joslin, particularly other state colleges and institutions affiliated with the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges, a national consortium of which MCLA is a member.
"This grant will allow us to extend the expertise of our faculty and staff across the college to use assessment to improve and extend teaching, learning, and the co-curricular experience," said Cynthia Brown, vice president for academic affairs. "At MCLA, the collaboration between Academic Affairs and Student Affairs in constructing a collegewide assessment system is unique, and I am very pleased that the support of the Davis Educational Foundation allows us to continue to strengthen that partnership.”
The foundation seeks to strengthen undergraduate programs at public and private colleges and universities in New England. It supports more effective teaching and learning strategies and works to help institutions control costs.
Elisabeth K. Davis and Stanton W. Davis co-founded the foundation after Stanton Davis' retirement as chairman of Shaw's Supermarkets Inc. It has provided over $75.8 million in grants to more than 139 institutions.
