Institutional Effectiveness Mission & Values

Our Mission

The Office of Effectiveness at Cornell College advances student success through the promotion of excellence in learning and teaching. Institutional Effectiveness fosters a campus culture of "intellectual curiosity"* about, and inquiry into, student learning and educational excellence. We coordinate, and provide assistance with, campus efforts to collect, analyze, interpret, and disseminate institutional data for purposes of curricular enhancement, strategic planning and decision-making, policy development, and institutional improvement.

The College has established a set of specific educational priorities based on its mission statement.

Our Values

Our work in Institutional Effectiveness is guided by the following values:

• Representation and use of data should be guided by ethical principles of honesty, accuracy, confidentiality, and integrity.
• Inquiry should be conducted systematically to provide valid, reliable, and believable evidence.
• Promoting student success entails fostering "intellectual curiosity" about students' experiences, learning and teaching, and factors contributing to educational excellence.
• We strive for consistency in reporting of data. Where consistency is not possible - because of factors such as differing definitions used among external agencies - we strive for clarity in explanation of data variables, definitions, and parameters for use.

* Phrase coined by Peggy Maki in Assessing for Learning: Building a Sustainable Commitment Across the Institution.