Guardienne of the Tomes

13th Annual  American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education ( AAHHE) National Conference, Irvine, CA President's remarks: Loui Olivas Gift of books on policy, and one of assessment Culturally Relevant Assessment Tools: Implications for Policy - Richard J. Tannenbaum (moderator) Higher ed enrollment reflects range of student diversity (race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual identity and orientation, language and culture. education and development of students ant be agnostic to this diversity. Assessment is an opportunity o g4t accurate and timely evidence of what student know and can do (selection use, formative, interim, summative). But also app to engaged and motivate students. Culturally relevant assessment provides students with accessible pathways. Differentiated instructional practices, we need differentiated assessment practices. Equitable (Fair) Assessment Goal is to maximize opportunity to for students to demonstrate their standing on constructs te...

Writing this book chapter on the digital divide made me consider my university’s current push for offering increased online learning opportunities. Because we serve students who generally come from lower socio-economic backgrounds, I’m wondering if administration isn’t going about this the wrong way. Is it really about offering more online classes and more online-only degrees and gen-eds? Or would it be more useful to decrease the digital divide that exists within our student body, between the higher-income kids who grew up with computers and gadgetry and those who may have had to make-do with less access? Many of our students still don’t own computers and make constant use of those available in our student labs and library. Many of our students – at least, the ones I see in our library – are not terribly comfortable navigating technologies used in learning environments, including BlackBoard and the library databases they are expected to use to conduct their research. These are the stu...

Coming from a private liberal arts background, I do have to admit that I didn't immediately understand why universities would offer for-credit classes in information literacy. Isn't all that information essentially interwoven through the courses students take? I mean, it's essential for any discipline. Let's back up. I went to a very small, private, expensive (I will have student loans to bequeath my grandchildren) liberal arts college. You know the sort - kids who drive cars daddy bought practically (if not actually) new, who clerk at daddy's law firm during the summers, and who don't drink beer because frankly, that sort of thing is for state school fraternity boys - Crown and Jack welcome, all others will be booted at the door. On the other hand, it was an extraordinarily rigorous academic atmosphere: if you missed three classes, you automatically failed. Fifteen page papers were the norm. There was no such thing as multiple choice, and we regularly hobnobbed...