THE STATE OF FIRSTYEAR PROGRAM ASSESSMENT: RECENT EVIDENCE FROM THE 2017 NSFYE Dallin George Young, Assistant Director for Research, Grants, and Assessment, National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, University of South Carolina The first-year experience (FYE) has been put forward as a philosophy and movement for improving first-year student transitions for most of the past four decades (Hankin & Gardner, 1996; Upcraft & Gardner, 1989) and represents a comprehensive, coordinated, and wide-reaching effort designed to support student success (Hankin & Gardner, 1996; Upcraft & Gardner, 1989; Young & Keup, 2019). Although the philosophy behind the FYE concept requires a broad approach to new-student success, research shows that it is not enough for colleges and universities to simply increase the array of educational offerings aimed at these students. Indeed, the FYE is not necessarily improved by the number of programs, but by the level of coordination and integration across them. Because first-year student success is not easily localized or specific to one functional area on campus (Young & Keup, 2019), FYE efforts must include a cohesive, comprehensive, and campuswide mix of curricular and cocurricular initiatives (Greenfield, Keup, & Gardner, 2013; Hankin & Gardner, 1996; Upcraft & Gardner, 1989). Assessment is also critical to the success of any FYE enterprise. As Kuh (2010) noted, only through thoughtful implementation and continual evaluation will high-impact practices, such as those that comprise a FYE, realize their full potential. Intentional design depends on information that allows for targeting of first-year efforts as well as ongoing improvement. This article focuses on assessment of first-year initiatives, and specifically on providing insight gathered through the 2017 administration of the National Survey on the First-Year Experience (NSFYE). A brief description of the survey precedes a presentation of data on the frequency of assessment and the formats of assessment practices of selected first-year initiatives.
2017 National Survey on the First-Year Experience: Creating and Coordinating Structures to Support Student Success by Dallin George Young (Ed.), Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina. Available in July 2019.
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