Tools for Designing Assessments

National Service Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC)

Learn & Serve, at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) has an extensive collection of “general assessment/evaluation links” and “instruments and surveys”:  http://servicelearning.org/instant_info/links_collection/index.php?link_set_id=1&category_id=186.

Some of the NSLC resources are listed below. 

Learn & Serve Performance Measurement

Assessment Instructions and Tools from Project STAR, the Corporation’s contractor for assessment and evaluation. General information about assessment:  http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/star/lsa-collection.  Resources specifically designed for L&S programs are here: http://www.nationalserviceresources.org/star/lsa-instrument-development 

Compendium of Assessment and Research Tools (CART)

CART provides a collection of research tools and instruments that may be searched by specific variables (e.g. “academic skills and achievement,” “academic attitudes,” “civic responsibility”):  http://servicelearning.org/instant_info/links_collection/index.php?popup_id=134

Community-Campus Partnerships for Health (CCPH) 

CCPH provides many resources for higher education service-learning programs and their community partners, including surveys: http://servicelearning.org/instant_info/links_collection/index.php?popup_id=1523  See their “methods and strategies for assessment” and also “fact sheets” that include the evidence base for S-L and discipline-specific resources.

A Practical Guide for Integrating Civic Responsibility into the Curriculum

This curriculum guide from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) includes useful tools and examples for assessing civic outcomes according to a range of stated objectives, including a student pre/post test and a community partner evaluation.  Note that this is a large (94 page pdf) document:  http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Content/ContentGroups/Headline_News/September_2002/CR_guide.pdf

W. K. Kellogg Foundation Evaluation Toolkit

A guide to integrating evaluation into program planning and service delivery, including instructions for preparing, designing, and conducting effective assessment:  http://www.wkkf.org/default.aspx?tabid=75&CID=281&NID=61&LanguageID=0

National Communication Association

Assessment resources include survey forms for students, faculty, universities and communities to evaluate their experiences with service-learning projects:  http://servicelearning.org/instant_info/links_collection/index.php?popup_id=135

Youth Participatory Evaluation: Strategies for Engaging Young People

• Review by Robert Shumer

Youth-Led Action Research, Planning & Evaluation (Youth REP): A Vehicle for Service-Learning and Community Change  by Tee J. Tagor and Sergio Cuellar

More Assessment Resources

Campus Compact

Many online resources for civic engagement and service-learning programs, including a paper that summarizes the findings of S-L research over the past several years, with an annotated bibliography: http://www.compact.org/resources/service-learning_resources/

The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE)

CIRCLE conducts and shares research on the civic and political engagement of young people (ages 15-25) and offers assessment tools:  http://www.civicyouth.org/

American Democracy Project

assessment tools: http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/toolkit0104/Assessment/Campus_Assessment_Tools.pdf

Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA

Has conducted an annual survey of college freshman since 1966 including research specifically on the effects of service-learning:  http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/index.php

National Survey of Student Engagement

sample survey available on-line: http://nsse.iub.edu/pdf/NSSE2008_US_English_Paper.pdf

National Society of Experiential Education (NSEE)

Offers most of its resources to members only: http://www.nsee.org/home.htm

International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE)

Holds an annual research conference from which the Advances in Service-Learning Research series is produced (membership organization):  http://www.researchslce.org/index.html