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Assessment Structure at Scranton
Educational assessment at the 探花系列 applies methods of inquiry to collect information on student learning experiences, and using this information for the continuous improvement of teaching and learning. Guided by the Office of Educational Assessment, which resides with the Division of Academic Affairs, our approach engages faculty, staff, and administration together in support of the assurance of learning.
Mission Statement of OEA
The Office of Educational Assessment provides oversight and coordination of the development of a campus-wide culture of assessment at The 探花系列. It provides support for developing faculty and staff expertise in the measurement and analysis of student learning outcomes, program learning outcomes, and institutional learning outcomes. In consultation with faculty, departments, school/colleges, the office provides direction and consultation for analyzing and reporting assessment results. The office provides resources to faculty and staff for the effective assessment of the student learning experience and the promotion of best practices in assessment.
The Mission of the Office of Educational Assessment is to:
- Develop and refine structures and processes for the collection, management, analysis, and application of educational assessment data (using a quality improvement framework – plan, implement, review, and improve).
- Collaborate with faculty and directors of co-curricular programs to develop strategies for effective assessment at the program and institutional levels.
- Consult with programs, including GE, to help implement, revise and/or update assessment plans.
- Assist programs governed by discipline specific external accreditation to articulate evidence of the use of assessment data to improve teaching and learning.
- Provide consultation for review and analysis of assessment data.
- Communicate the most current information on best practices in assessment to the University community.
- Communicate the most up-to-date assessment requirements (currently Standard 14) by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
- Synthesize and demonstrate evidence of a sustained and organized approach to educational assessment at the 探花系列 to stakeholders and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
- Plan and provide opportunities for continuing education about best practices in assessment.
Learn more about the OEA Staff, here.
Comprehensive Assessment Plan
Student learning assessment has long been part of the academic life of the 探花系列. Guided by the Comprehensive Plan for the Assessment of Student Learning, we embrace a systematic approach to academic and co-curricular learning, with the faculty-led Office of Educational Assessment (OEA), and collaborative Educational Assessment Advisory Committee (EAAC) at the heart of our approach.
Purpose
This Comprehensive Plan for Sustaining Assessment Practices to Enhance Student Learning at the 探花系列 outlines a comprehensive, systematic strategy for the University’s approach to student learning assessment. The plan describes processes and cycles for the development and assessment of learning outcomes for academic and co-curricular learning programming, and associated reporting and application procedures.
Grounded in learning outcomes at program and institutional levels, and for the general education program, improvements to student learning are thus part of a formal cycle of gathering, analyzing, disseminating, and acting upon evidence gathered. Assessment also serves a valuable role in helping us to celebrate and share the value and impact of a Scranton education.
In shaping our direction, the University community considers best practices in higher education, including those developed and endorsed by scholars and practitioners within the field of learning assessment. Our ethical commitment to reflective accountability, evaluating our programs and activities with honest candor in the spirit of better serving to our students though the best possible programming, is closely tied to our Catholic, Jesuit mission and ways of proceeding. Our practices are also designed to address external accountability obligations, including addressing Middle States’ Standards of Accreditation and those of other programmatic and disciplinary accreditation bodies.
The Plan pays particular attention to the importance of the University’s Catholic and Jesuit mission: namely, its dedication to . Drawing on underlying concepts from the Ignatian pedagogical paradigm, the University’s student learning assessment plan ensures ongoing evaluation to build a sustained, evidence-based process for assessing student learning outcomes across programs and curricula.
Assessment Roles and Responsibilities at the 探花系列
Doing assessment well takes the care, time, and collaboration of faculty, staff, and administration. As an institution committed to the Jesuit ideals of cura personalis (care of the individual person) and cura apostolica (care of the institution), a culture of care, reflection, and continuous improvement are at the heart of what we do.
The OEA is at the core of educational assessment, which falls under the administrative purview of the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs. The OEA reports directly to the Assistant Provost for Institutional Planning and Effectiveness, whose role includes building connections and assuring collaborative engagement between institutional and learning assessment activities in support of our mission and goals. The Assistant Provost serves as the University’s Middle States' Accreditation Liaison Officer, and, in this capacity, as a guide and resource to internal groups in understanding and conforming to Middle States expectations and requirements for institutional assessment and the assessment of student learning.
In addition to the work of the OEA, each academic college, the Weinberg Memorial Library, and division of Student Life all have duties under the Comprehensive Plan to support student learning and assessment.
Read more about assessment roles and responsibilities, here.
OEA Staff
OEA Director: Vanessa Ann Jensen, Ed.D., BCBA-D
About Dr. Jensen:
Dr. Vanessa Jensen is an associate professor in the Counseling and Human Services Department at the 探花系列. She teaches courses in Applied Behavior Analysis and also works as a consultant with adults with autism. She has been a faculty member since 2004 and a consultant since 1996. She received her bachelor’s degree from the 探花系列 in 1996 in psychology, philosophy, theology, and religious studies. In 1998, she earned her master’s degree in elementary school counseling, also from the 探花系列. She obtained her Ed.D. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in Curriculum and Instruction (PK–12) in 2004. She completed her studies in Applied Behavior Analysis through Penn State University and obtained her Behavior Analyst Certification Board® certification in 2004.
Dr. Jensen currently holds certifications in Elementary School Counseling (Grades K–6), Special Education (Grades N–12), English (Grades 7–12 and 4–8), and Mathematics (Grades 4–8). She has served as chair of the Middle States Periodic Review Report Subcommittee on Institutional Assessment and Planning (Standard 7: Institutional Assessment), and chaired the Assessment Committee in the Education Department from 2012 to 2017.
She has also served on the Special Education PK–8 and 7–12 Program Development for PDE, the TEAC Inquiry Brief Proposal Committee, and the CAEP EPP Annual Report Committee. She chaired the TEAC Internal Audit Committee in 2012 and 2013 and was a member of the Curriculum Committee for PDE Program Revisions in 2008 and 2009. Dr. Jensen currently serves as the Director of the Graduate Programs in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and developed the ABA Program Learning Outcomes and Assessment Plan. She served as an Assessment Fellow in the Office of Educational Assessment since 2014.
Email: vanessa.jensen@scranton.edu
General Education Assessment Coordinator: Dr. Maria Squire
Reporting to the OEA director, the General Education (GE) Assessment Coordinator reports provides leadership for the assessment, coordination, and improvement of the General Education curriculum to support the needs of colleges and programs conducting assessment activities for student learning, program quality and effectiveness, and the student learning experience. The GEA Coordinator takes responsibility for informing other departments within the University of results and implications of various student learning assessment projects related to the GE outcomes and learning. In addition, the coordinator assists faculty and staff in planning, designing, implementing, analyzing, and reporting University-wide general education assessment efforts.
About Dr. Squire:
Dr. Squire is a Professor of Biology at The 探花系列 and has been actively involved in educational assessment for over 15 years. During the 2008-2009 academic year, Dr. Squire was instrumental in leading the implementation of course-wide assessment for the Biology 110-111 Human Anatomy and Physiology I and II courses, which are multi-section courses taken primarily by first year students in pre-health professions programs. She served as the coordinator for the assessment of these courses from Fall 2008 until Spring 2022. Dr. Squire also has over 10 years of experience working with the university’s general education curriculum, first as a member of the Conference Committee on Curriculum (CCC) from Fall 2012- Fall 2017, then as the chair of the CCC from Spring 2017 – Spring 2020, and finally as the General Education Coordinator from Fall 2020 - Spring 2022. She also served on the General Education Review Committee from Fall 2021 – Spring 2022.
email: maria.squire@scranton.edu
Faculty Assessment Fellows
Faculty assessment fellows play an important role in supporting and stewarding learning assessment at The 探花系列. In specific connection to their home college, Fellows support student learning assessment and collaborate with deans, department chairs and program directors to assure development of learning outcomes and plans, and timely reporting & review of end of semester/academic year program reports. There are two faculty assessment fellows supporting the College of Arts and Sciences, and one each from the Kania School of Management and the Leahy College of Professional Studies (2025-2026 appointments pending).
CAS Faculty Fellow: Tara Hamilton-Fay
Tara Hamilton-Fay has a B.S. in Exercise Physiology and a minor in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and a M.S. in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado Boulder. She is a Faculty Specialist in the Biology department and primarily teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology lecture and laboratory courses. Tara truly enjoys teaching and tries to teach to all learning styles, so every student has an opportunity to thrive. She uses demonstrations, models, chalk talks, worksheets, video clips, group work, and real-world examples. She pursues professional development in the areas of pedagogy, assessment, and inclusivity. Tara also coordinates and creates programming for the Center for Teaching Excellence and the First-year Faculty Mentorship Program.
LCHS Faculty Fellow - applications underway.
KSOM Faculty Fellow - applications underway.
WML Faculty Fellow - applications underway.
Past Members (OEA)
Past Directors of The OEA
Dr. Mary Jane DiMattio, RN, Ph.D.: Director, OEA (2013 through 2022)Dr. Mary Jane DiMattio Associate Professor of Nursing, will serve as the OEA Director. Dr. DiMattio is an alumna of The 探花系列, has a master’s degree in nursing education, and research-focused doctorate in Nursing from The University of Pennsylvania. She has served in a variety of capacities within and outside of the University in roles related to research, assessment, and continuous quality improvement. Most notably, Dr. DiMattio chairs the Nursing Department’s Evaluation Committee, charged with collecting, monitoring, and reporting outcome data for programmatic improvement and Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accreditation. In addition, she chaired the Quality Committee of the Board at Mercy Hospital, continues to serve on the Board of Trustees at Regional Hospital of Scranton, and participates on a Nursing Research Council at Geisinger Health System. She also participated on the University committee that developed the initial draft ILOs in 2013. Having been a member of the Monitoring Report Coordinating Committee, Dr. DiMattio’s service in this new role will help to maintain important continuity and institutional knowledge in the development of our assessment processes through and beyond the context of the Monitoring Report.
Email: maryjane.dimattio@scranton.edu
Dr. Satyajit Ghosh, Ph.D.: OEA Co-Director (2022-2025)
During his long teaching career Dr. Ghosh has always been interested in assessment. He served on various assessment committees: Subcommittee on Assessment, Middle States Accreditation Committee (1997); Committee on Program Evaluation (1994-1996); and the GE Subcommittee of Middle States Accreditation Committee (2006). But it was 2007-2008 when he became very directly involved with educational assessment as he started to work closely with KSOM Assistant Dean Paul Perhach who was the main architect of Kania School’s assessment program. Dr. Ghosh worked as a faculty assessor on every KSOM assessment day that was held between 2008 and 2012. During this time with the help of his departmental colleagues Dr. Ghosh also developed the Student Learning goals for Economics and Finance majors. He continued his assessment related activities through his two recent committee appointments. In 2013 he served on the Institutional Learning Outcomes Working Group and helped to create a “draft” of the institutional learning outcomes—an integral part of University’s assessment plan. He served on the Middle States Monitoring Report Coordinating Committee in 2014. Over the past few years Dr. Ghosh has been developing various interactive teaching tools, based on “active learning models” to “close the loop” in individual course assessment plan and help students attain their learning goals. He presented various research papers containing these alternative pedagogical tools and their assessment in several national and international conferences. Dr. Ghosh has also served as a Faculty Assessment Fellow and as Director of General Education Assessment, and the OEA representative to the Faculty Senate General Education Review Committee.
Past Faculty Assessment Fellows
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Roy Domenico, Ph.D..
Dr. Roy Domenico served as a OEA Faculty Fellow for the CAS during the 2024-2025 academic year, and continues to be involved with the EAAC and other assessment activities. He has served as the University's History Department Chair and Director of International Studies. Dr. Domenico has written four books on modern Italian history and Fordham University Press will publish his next one, Italy's War at Home, the Fronte intern, 1940-1945. He also co-edited an encyclopedia of Christian Politics and has written a number of chapters and articles on the subject. He also served (2013-2022) as Secretary-Treasurer of the Society for Italian Historical Studies and twice (including currently) on the Executive Committee of the American Catholic Historical Association.
Linda Ledford-Miller, Ph.D.
Dr. Ledford-Miller first became involved with Assessment under the then-CAS Dean Dreisbach. She attended several workshops by external assessment consultants sponsored by the Dean, and subsequently led the Department of World Languages and Cultures in the creation of its Program Assessment Plan for modern language majors, completed in 2008. The Department revised its Assessment Plan in fall 2013. In spring 2014 she collaborated with Dr. Joseph Wilson to begin an Assessment Plan for Classics. Dr. Ledford-Miller was an inaugural Assessment Fellow from November 2013 until Fall of 16, and was an active member of the Monitoring Report Coordinating Committee. Together with colleagues from the MRCC, she attended a special workshop in Philadelphia on "Creating and Selecting Assessment Tools." She served as co-author of the 2014 Middle States Monitoring Report.
John Deak, Ph.D.
Dr. Deak learned about assessment practices and expectations when co-chairing the committee responsible for drafting the Middle States periodic review report in 2012-2013. He has attended Middle States workshops regarding assessment of student learning, participated in the Intersession 2014 CAS Assessment Pilot, and participated in several assessment related workshops and activities on campus. During his tenure as an assessment champion and fellow, Dr. Deak has assisted faculty and departments in refining their assessment practices and in conveying faculty concerns regarding assessment.
Harry Dammer, Ph.D.
Dr. Dammer has been an advocate for assessment since he developed an assessment plan for Sociology and Criminal Justice Department in 2007. Since that time he has worked on assessment planning and implementation in his Department and also has become active in assessment in the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences (ACJS). His recent activity with ACJS includes reviewing the assessment procedures of criminal justice programs across the country to determine if they meet accreditation standards. Dr. Dammer feels strongly that assessment need not be onerous, has improved his own teaching, and has helped his Department focus on improving student learning for all who take Sociology and Criminal Justice classes.
Cyrus P. Olson III., D.Phil. (Oxon.)
Dr. Olsen is Associate Professor of Theology/Religious Studies at The 探花系列, where he has been employed since 2006. A graduate of the at The University of Washington, and Systematic from The University of Oxford, his research and teaching focus on religion and society from 1750-Present. In addition to his primary academic appointment, Dr. Olsen is also Research Fellow and Network Co-Lead for , and an Affiliate Research Fellow through a at the , a subsidiary of the specializing in Neurology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, located in Cambridge, MA.
Nicholas P. Truncale, M.S.
Prof. Truncale participated in the pilot Intersession Assessment Group in 2014, assessing a GE Natural Science course “It’s Only Rocket Science” he developed. Since then he created a new course, Foundations of Physics and Engineering, which serves as his department’s first year Eloquentia Perfecta (EP) Level I oral communication and digital technology requirement. He assessed all of the EP student learning outcomes earning the course permanent EP status and also presented these assessment results at a physics education conference. He co-authored a physics program review, participated in a departmental student retention study, and “closed the loop” by helping to enact changes based upon the results of the retention study. A Faculty Assessment Fellow since 2014, he currently directs the.
Adam Pratt, Ph.D.
Dr. Pratt joined the OEA in September 2017. As a member of the History Department, he teaches courses on the Age of Jackson, the American Civil War, and Native American History, as well as introductory courses to U.S. history. In addition, he teaches courses on historical research methods for undergraduates. In addition to the OEA, he sits on the General Education Assessment committee, and is a member of the CAS Curriculum and Assessment Committee and the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee.