Toward a Capacity Framework for Useful Student Learning Outcomes Assessment in College Foreign Language Programs

Abstract

The educational impacts of mandated assessment in U.S. colleges is part of a growing research agenda focused on how methodologies of program evaluation best enable educators to improve teaching and learning. Accordingly, research has tried to identify the key aspects of evaluation/assessment ‘capacity’ in college language departments (i.e., environmental conditions and personnel factors) that seem most associated with meaningful reform and evaluation use. This article reports on a provisional framework of evaluation/assessment capacity for university foreign language (FL) programs. Factor analysis was performed on questionnaire data from 204 university language educators reporting on their program assessment activities. Results suggested a set of program‐level and institutional capacity elements grouped into 7 categories: (a) institutional support (funding, training, expertise, etc.), (b) institutional governance and leadership, (c) facilitative infrastructures (e.g., curricular maps, assessment plans), (d) program‐level support (financial, personnel resources), (e) a prevailing program ethos conducive to educational innovation, (f) pro‐assessment attitudes, and (g) high‐quality assessment activities and abilities (i.e., dimensions of assessment practice at advanced levels of skill and experience). The framework delineates a provisional set of theory‐based, empirically supported program factors linked to assessment usefulness in postsecondary FL education and provides educators a set of guidelines to develop their assessment capabilities.