Assessment
Illinois Leadership® Center (ILC) programs and services are informed through continual assessment and evaluation practices and are guided by current leadership theory. Our assessment is modeled on a cyclical process that includes planning, data collection/analysis, dissemination of the results, and implementing change. By utilizing national data from the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL), Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS), and program-specific assessment results; the ILC is committed to creating an ethos of systematic planning to improve program effectiveness, leadership capacity, and student learning outcomes.
We utilize the following types of assessment:
- Tracking-identifying how many and what student populations use our services (e.g., attendance, certificate completion rates, class standing, race, gender, academic college)
- Satisfaction- assessing the level of satisfaction with our programs and services
- Benchmarking- comparing our programs and services to peer institutions
- National Standards- using CAS standards to self-evaluate our services and offerings
- Outcomes Assessment- measuring the impact of our programs and services on specific student learning and development outcomes such as leadership capacity and efficacy.
ILC’s Assessment and Research Team (ART)
In order to fulfil our mission of continual improvement, the ILC has created an Assessment and Research team comprised of full-time staff, graduate students, and undergraduates. The team meets regularly to improve departmental data collection measures, interpret results, and work with programmatic teams to implement change. The team engages in regular professional development on assessment practices. Undergraduate team members are encouraged to design their own research project and present at the annual undergraduate research fair.