Assessing the Practices of Public Scholarship (APPS) promotes and develops integrated assessment. Such assessment emphasizes community impact and involves community stakeholders as well as higher education partners in collaborative and meaningful ways. It also invites evaluation of the institution’s own practices, contributions, and outcomes in relation to such defined goals.
Assessment is vital to improving campus-community partnerships and measuring impact in relation to defined civic, social, and academic goals. Understanding the actual community benefits of public engagement and involving community partners in such inquiries are critical aspects of responsible assessment of publicly engaged scholarship and artistic practice at any scale. IA believes that adopting integrated assessment practices advances the reciprocal benefits of publicly engaged scholarship and practice, and thereby strengthens the public role and democratic purpose of humanities, arts, and design.
IA’s assessment research currently focuses at the scale of courses and projects, programs, departments, and centers. This research builds on the 2007-2009 research into curricular models through The Curriculum Project and commissioned essays. In 2010, IA board members Sylvia Gale and Pam Korza iteratively developed the integrated assessment concept and guiding principles with feedback from the IA consortium. The initiative has benefited from the participation of John Saltmarsh, director of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
