Press Release for:
Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education
Phyllis Mable
CAS Executive Director
(202) 862-1400

CAS has announced that it will hold a National Symposium on "CAS Standards, Self-Assessment, and Student Learning Outcomes in Higher Education," November 12-14, 2006, at the Hotel Hilton, Crystal City. The goal of the national symposium is to strengthen the higher education community's understanding of the CAS standards and guidelines.

In addition to a pre-workshop on learning about "CAS Basics," nationally recognized speakers, and round table discussions, four "hands on" learning opportunities will be offered during the symposium:

1) Connecting Functional Areas to Student Learning Outcomes
This session will describe the fundamentals of measuring learning outcomes including the formation of research questions, deciding what variables to measure, how to measure them, and determining from data when change is needed.

2) FALDOs: Setting the Foundation for Imagining the Future
There are 16 FALDOs that speak to the 16 learning domains in the CAS Standards and Guidelines (e.g., intellectual development, effective communication, social responsibility). This session will assist participants in becoming familiar with the FALDOs (theoretical background, examples of achievement, research instruments, and research examples) and will consider action plans for the future based on learning outcomes.

3) Preparing for Institutional Accreditation
Does every office, program, and service contribute to the achievement of the mission of the institution? How do you know? How can you be certain of your answers to these and other questions from a visitation team or your college or university president? The workshop will give attendees the chance to learn how to overcome assessment fears, assemble self-assessment teams, learn about the kinds of quantitative and qualitative available, writing reports and giving adequate thought to final materials to be distributed with other institutional information.

4) Creating a Culture for Assessment
For assessment to lead to goal achievement, staff must buy into the purpose of assessment and incorporate assessment into their on-going activities. This session will provide insights how assessment can be woven into the planning and processes of the institution. Topics include training, supervision, and creating an assessment structure.

The National Symposium will be limited to the first 300 registered participants. Mailings will be made to senior student affairs officers as well as institutional research officers in May and again in August inviting professionals to the National Symposium.