CARS Partnership

In August 2022, the Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices (OSARP) and the Student Affairs Assessment Support Services (SASS) within the Center for Assessment and Research Studies committed to a year-long partnership to expand assessment of student learning and development outcomes within OSARP. In January 2023, both units convened to discuss the great progress toward their shared goals related to assessment. As of January 2023, three areas of OSARP have made tremendous strides related to assessment: Restorative Practices, By the Numbers, and Student Accountability Board Training. With respect to Restorative Practices, Dylan Sorkin and Lindsay Stebbins from OSARP worked weekly with Kate Schaefer (SASS graduate student led) to articulate the program theory underlying Restorative Practices at JMU (i.e., what program components should impact what outcomes and why, based on previous empirical evidence). Riley Herr (SASS GA) then summarized and critiqued existing measures of relevant outcomes of Restorative Practices. With respect to By the Numbers educational programming, Patrick Francis and Sam Squyars from OSARP worked closely with Kate Schaefer and Mason Jones (SASS GA) to revisit the student learning outcomes, update the existing outcome measure using previously collected data, and build new online systems to offer both the programming and the assessment. With respect to Board Training, Robby Smith of OSARP worked weekly with Kathryn Thompson (SASS GA) to articulate what faculty and staff board members should know, think, and do in order to effectively assign sanctions for a case. Current training was then mapped to the new outcomes to identify outcomes in need of additional programming. Mason Jones also worked to draft a variety of innovative and accessible items to assess board members achievement of these outcomes, while Riley Herr searched for existing measures of the outcomes. Dr. Wendy Lushbaugh, Director of OSARP and Dr. Sara Finney, Associate Director of CARS oversaw, encouraged, and supported the work accomplished via the partnership of these two units. The January 2023 meeting resulted in continued enthusiasm to meet our goals for Spring 2023. We then hope to share this work internally and externally in 2023 – 2024 so others can learn from our partnership.