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Attempting Something is Better than Doing Nothing
Attempting Something is Better than Doing Nothing
Dr. Gavin Henning
Dr. Gavin Henning, New England College, whose recent co-authored and co-edited book is the well-received Reframing Assessment to Center Equity: Theories, Models, and Practices (Stylus Publishing, 2022) discusses how he began considering equity-centered assessment as a cyclical framework of inclusive, equity-focused assessment models. He believes that institutional capacity and individual reflection are required for implementing any type of equity-focused assessment practice. Questions he suggests for consideration include, at the institutional level is there a willingness to examine teaching and assessment practices and to look at how policies shape our understanding. Likewise at the personal level how do I bring in my own bias, assumptions, and power to the work of assessment and how do I examine my own power, positionality, and privilege.
Dr. Gavin Henning, New England College, whose recent co-authored and co-edited book is the well-received Reframing Assessment to Center Equity: Theories, Models, and Practices (Stylus Publishing, 2022) discusses how he began considering equity-centered assessment as a cyclical framework of inclusive, equity-focused assessment models. He believes that institutional capacity and individual reflection are required for implementing any type of equity-focused assessment practice. Questions he suggests for consideration include, at the institutional level is there a willingness to examine teaching and assessment practices and to look at how policies shape our understanding. Likewise at the personal level how do I bring in my own bias, assumptions, and power to the work of assessment and how do I examine my own power, positionality, and privilege.
The fear of not selecting the “right” action or unintentionally causing harm should not prevent us from doing assessment work; attempting good assessment work today is better than not doing work at all due to being afraid of doing the wrong thing. To have an impact on equity, Dr. Henning believes that assessors work as change agents in the change process of assessment; assessment is not simply a method to document practices. Much of the data that is collected and used for assessment purposes is done so at the behest of accreditation and federal reporting requirements for national statistics agencies and Dr. Henning believes that advocating for those agencies to change their data requirements (to include questions about gender and not the dismissive biological sex, for instance) would then impact institutional data collection that could then be disaggregated for useful results. Including all student voices in our assessment work and intentionally disaggregating data appropriately will allow us to include crucial information from potentially marginalized student voices.
The fear of not selecting the “right” action or unintentionally causing harm should not prevent us from doing assessment work; attempting good assessment work today is better than not doing work at all due to being afraid of doing the wrong thing. To have an impact on equity, Dr. Henning believes that assessors work as change agents in the change process of assessment; assessment is not simply a method to document practices. Much of the data that is collected and used for assessment purposes is done so at the behest of accreditation and federal reporting requirements for national statistics agencies and Dr. Henning believes that advocating for those agencies to change their data requirements (to include questions about gender and not the dismissive biological sex, for instance) would then impact institutional data collection that could then be disaggregated for useful results. Including all student voices in our assessment work and intentionally disaggregating data appropriately will allow us to include crucial information from potentially marginalized student voices.
His and Dr. Anne Lundquist’s Equity-Minded and Equity-Centered Framework is presented here: https://www.anthology.com/blog/increasing-awareness-and-reducing-harm-a-framework-for-equity-minded-and-equity-centered
His and Dr. Anne Lundquist’s Equity-Minded and Equity-Centered Framework is presented here: https://www.anthology.com/blog/increasing-awareness-and-reducing-harm-a-framework-for-equity-minded-and-equity-centered
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