A Humble Start to a Grand Journey

What is student success?  Degree attainment? Persistence? Development as a person? Achievement? Those of you who've also pondered the question know there's no one answer. And, it gets more complex with changes in geography, the student body, or legislative forces.  How do you define student success?

I'm thrilled to be part of this caravan of assessment along with my colleagues and collaborators at Hunter. As the Director of the Scholar Programs I hope to use this interactive space as a place to reflect as I work with campus units, stakeholders, and students to more formally define what success looks like in this newly formed program.

Greetings from Lindsay Blau Portnoy of Educational Foundations!

Thank you for inviting me to share in this important assessment-centered conversation. I have been fortunate to work with students and faculty in the department of Educational Foundations for nearly six years. Throughout my time here I have taught over a dozen different courses that vary from the Psychology of Learning and Development to the Assessment of Teaching and Learning. My students are teacher candidates pursuing birth to grade 12 certification so the content and context changes considerably by cohort.

My assessment practices continue to evolve and I look forward to sharing my journey with you and invite feedback, comments, and critical questions. My first and foremost goal is to make student thinking visible by measuring learning as effectively and authentically as possible, whether it's the best practices in creating engaging formative assessments to elicit feedback and drive instruction or ensuring reliable summative assessments that accurately represent course objectives.

Welcome to Hunter's Office of Assessment Blog!

Why does an Office of Assessment need a blog, you ask? Turns out, assessment can be a pretty thought-provoking endeavor. After all, asking the big questions - what students learn, how they learn it (or don't) and what we all can do about it - can lead us down some tricky paths. Providing a space for sharing and reflection can make that exploration more rewarding and enjoyable.

As the Director of Assessment, I'll be posting here regularly as I come across interesting assessment ideas and models at Hunter and throughout the field. I would like to welcome my Hunter colleagues and collaborators Brian Buckwald from Scholar Programs and Lindsay Portnoy from Educational Foundations who will be writing about their assessment journeys. Both care deeply about our students and have a great deal of excellent insights to share. I look forward to reading what they have to say.

If you would like to join us in writing about assessment, please contact the Office at assessment@hunter.cuny.edu.

Welcome to the conversation!