How often have you seen “create / promote a culture of assessment” on a position description and/or listed as a performance goal? While nearly ubiquitous in assessment job descriptions, creating culture is not the responsibility of a single individual. Culture change regarding assessment can feel Sisyphean: the task is never complete and many people view the work itself as meaningless and compulsory. Sounds pretty bleak, right? No worries: it’s nothing a bit of well-directed curiosity can’t fix!

After all, what is research if not the embodiment of a desire to explore, learn, and investigate? Research is formalized curiosity: a state of mind and way of being. Assessment of student learning is fundamentally an act of curiosity. What would culture change efforts entail if they derived from curiosity? How might we promote curiosity as fundamental to equity-centering efforts that seek to improve student learning and success?

Lightly-facilitated by members of the University of California Assessment Group, this SIG is for everyone and anyone who wants to explore the questions above, propose questions not yet articulated, and (most of all) get curious! ALL are welcome!