Northern Kentucky University
Administrative Unit Assessment Plans

Click here for the Administrative Unit Assessment Plan template!

Focus your Mission

1. Does your unit have a mission statement?
• If not, think about filling in these parentheses:

The (unit name) is (basic description of the unit) which works to (what the unit does, for whom) through (core programs and services).

• If so, is it an accurate and up-to-date reflection of the work your unit does?
2. How does the mission of your unit contribute to the overall mission of the University?

Focus your plan to fulfill your mission

1. Review – is our mission statement up to date and does it accurately reflect our work? If not, how does it need to be adjusted to accommodate everything we do?
2. Establish Priorities – based on our mission, what are our top two or three priorities or for the upcoming year or time period? How would we describe our intended efforts toward these priorities?
3. Develop Goals inline with the Priorities - after defining our intended efforts to achieve our priorities, how do we establish realistic goals that will help us achieve these priorities?
4. Decide – as the office of ________, how can assessment help us more fully meet our mission and reach these defined goals? If we forced ourselves to rank the goals, in which order would they fall?
5. Turn Goals into Action – discuss priority areas in which to consider the assessment goals in general. Brainstorm a list of possible evaluation questions under each priority area, and questions about our work in general that we would like to answer through assessment.
6. Develop Measurable Outcome Statements - after brainstorming questions about the unit priorities and the unit work, develop action statements that would lead to achievement of the defined goals.
7. Develop a Schedule of Assessment - determine how often the unit can contribute information or updates or revisions to the assessment plan, and establish a timeframe that facilitates accomplishment of the goals.

Tips and Hints:

• make sure that your goal statements incoporates a strategy to achieve the goal - this will facilitate defining outcome statements
• in developing outcome statements, think about 2 or 3 things that, if they occurred, would be signs of success
• make sure you define your goals in ways that are possible to control or measure
• develop "if-then" statements and follow them up by thinking about how to contribute to the 'if' as you complete the assessment plan template: for example, "If x occurs, then y will happen, but what needs to happen for x to occur?"