Innovation and accountability in foreign language program evaluation

Awardees: Nicole Mills (FAS), Stacey Katz Bourns (FAS), Virginia Maurer (FAS)

Summary: Awardees will organize a new symposium and series of workshops for faculty to explore contemporary approaches in assessing and renewing foreign language curricula.

The Language Program Evaluation Symposium took place Friday, October 31, 2014 in the Lamont Forum Room. See more background information and presentations from the symposium.

In a post-symposium survey, participants indicated that they valued the sessions and cited specific benefits including: learning about the field of program evaluation; learning about how other institutions tackle the issue of assessment; learning key strategies for use on campus; understanding assessment as a valuable tool in the humanities; networking; and feeling motivated to make programmatic changes.

After the Fall 2014 Symposium, Mills was invited by an attendee and colleague at the University of New Hampshire to present at the New Hampshire Language Pedagogy Symposium.

In addition, the team presented at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) 2014 Convention on November 22, 2014 in San Antonio, TX. Mills was also invited to talk about perceived value research at the 2015 American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators (AAUSC) French panel in San Diego.

Subsequent invitations to present include: the Consortium on Useful Assessment in Language and Humanities Education Georgetown University where the consortium expressed interest in possibly using the scale to evaluate language programs at various institutions within the consortium; and Princeton University to discuss the research and connection to language pedagogy at their Language Pedagogy Forum entitled “Language Education for Global Citizenship” in April 2016.