Case: Developing Nurse Practitioners at the College of St. Catherine

HEA 630 Milestone Six Guidelines and Rubric: Assessment Tools to Inform Data Decisions In higher education administration today, we often hear the term assessment being used in context much more than instruction. Demands are being made from internal and external constituents, regulatory and accrediting agencies and organizations, government affiliates, future and past students, and many others to request, encourage, and require colleges and universities to provide data to support decisions being made. Often, those decisions are based on change initiatives that are mandated, suggested, or brought as a completely new idea. Regardless of how the change begins, it must first be informed with data. Many different assessment tools and strategies are used to provide qualitative and quantitative data required to develop informed change ideas, to support processes and policies used to communicate and initiate the change, and to provide information about how well the change is being managed over time. Data must be collected to support the reason for the change, the processes used to manage the change, and to determine whether the change is working as expected. Assessment tools provide the support required for the decisions made in higher education. As a higher education administrator in this class and in your career, your job will be to use those tools effectively to improve your chances of success. Prompt: In Module Seven, you will continue to provide support for the change effort by investigating the use of data to inform the decision and the process used to implement the decision. You will describe data based strategies that would support and communicate the need for change at the institution described in your selected case study. Identify both qualitative and quantitative assessments that have been or might be used in the case study. Has the data collected been used to adequately support the decisions made? Are additional tools needed or have the tools not been effectively used to gather the correct data to support the decision and to overcome obstacles? Illustrate how the institution’s previous data-driven decisions are presented as obstacles to change in relation to student success, retention, and persistence. Think about the strategies that might be effective in ensuring implementation success and then offer examples of qualitative and quantitative data that might be used. Support your ideas for use of specific data-driven tools to overcome obstacles and support change strategies at your institution. This milestone submission addresses critical element III, section B (data-driven decisions) and critical element IV, section G (data-based strategies communicate change) of the final project, and it serves as an initial draft for these elements. Substantial instructor feedback will be provided for foundational support of the final project. As you consider the case study you selected and work through course content, identify ways to build on this milestone submission to expand your analysis, assessment, and application of these pieces of the project for your final submission in Module Nine. As you work on your milestone submission, it is important to note that not every critical element of the final project will be addressed by your milestone submission. When preparing your milestone and final project submissions, be sure to support your work with supplemental information and additional resources beyond the required resources and readings. The following critical elements must be addressed in your paper:

 Illustrate how the institution’s previous data-driven decisions are presented as obstacles to change in student success, retention, and persistence. Be sure to think about various obstacles change agents must overcome while using data to drive decisions and direction.

 Data-Based Strategies Communicate Change: Describe the data-based strategies that would communicate the rationale for change to both internal and external constituents. Be sure to think about how data can reinforce the need for change. You might consider how data can influence support for change.

 

 

 

Rubric Guidelines for Submission: Your paper must be submitted and formatted as per the APA Manual, as a three- to four-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and at least three sources cited in APA format. Ensure you have a cover sheet and reference sheet. Cover sheet and reference sheet are additional pages.

Critical Elements Proficient (100%) Needs Improvement (70%) Not Evident (0%) Value

Internal Challenges Curriculum Delivery

Illustrates how data-driven decisions made at the institution are presented as obstacles to change in student success, retention, and persistence

Illustrates how data-driven decisions made at the institution are presented as obstacles to change in student success, retention, and persistence but details either lack relevance or are cursory

Does not illustrate how data-driven decisions made at the institution are presented as obstacles to change in student success, retention, and persistence

40

Data-Based Strategies Communicate Change

Describes data-based strategies that would communicate the rationale for change to internal and external constituents using appropriate data

Describes data-based strategies that would communicate the rationale for change to internal and external constituents using data but details either lack relevance or are cursory or data is inappropriate

Does not describe data-based strategies that would communicate the rationale for change to internal and external constituents using data

40

Articulation of Response

Submission has no major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization

Submission has major errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that negatively impact readability and articulation of main ideas

Submission has critical errors related to citations, grammar, spelling, syntax, or organization that prevent understanding of ideas

20

Earned Total 100%