"The mission of the Assessment Center is to provide, in an efficient and friendly manner, equitable and secure assessment services that promote academic success, personal growth, and career development."
In keeping with our long-standing policy (and best practice) of assessing all degree-seeking or course enrollee students prior to registering for classes, the Assessment Center, headquartered in room A209 is charged with leading this effort.
The Assessment Center is a single point of entry for all new students and employs a standardized, computer -adaptive and nationally recognized and normed assessment instrument to ensure that our new students are properly placed into classes. Long ago, Parkland College faculty and staff determined that the “right to fail” was not a theory we would embrace.
Our friends in the Assessment Center include:
From left to right: Dave Anderson (High School Assessment Advisor), Melissa Franella (Part-Time Assessment Center Assistant), John Wegeng (Amazing Student Worker), Beth Hewing (Assessment Center Assistant), Diana Steele (Director). Not Pictured: Phae Seidel
You may have already known that the Center administers the Compass Test to each of our new students, but I’ll bet very few of us know the extent to the testing services our Center provides.
ACT Residual
College-Level Examination Program
GED /General Educational Development Test
Multi-state Professional Responsibility Exam
Test of Essential Academic Skills
Automotive Service Excellence Exam
Certified Nursing Assistant Exam
Emergency Medical Technician Tests
Illinois Teachers' Certification Exams
Chemistry competency exam
Constitution Test
Counseling Instruments
Online assessment
Test proctoring services for distance learners
Spanish placement and proficiency tests
As you might imagine, the Center is a busy place. The first timeslots for testing occur at 7:45am each morning and conclude shortly before 5pm. Many of the instruments and assessments listed above are proctored on Saturdays and evenings.
From approximately 8:30am till nearly 3pm, the phones ring constantly. Not just often, but constantly. And by constantly, I mean that you cannot put the phone into the cradle for more than a second and it is ringing again. Really.
My first job was to help on the phone. Students would call to schedule an appointment for testing, re-schedule existing appointments, and to ask a variety of questions that I found myself woefully unprepared to answer. Thankfully and wisely, the staff in the Center didn’t leave me to my own devices much. I was shown the two main Colleague screens used to verify admissions status (SASM) and testing history (TSUM), and by the end of the first day, I felt marginally able to assist a student with an appointment. Thanks to Dave & Dianna for their patience.
Throughout the days, I learned about our process for bringing assessment tests to our area high schools and the fact that we went from administering somewhere in the neighborhood of four dual credit assessments to something like 120 per month these days.
I also learned that the staff in the Center, particularly Beth, Melissa, and amazing student worker, John, have some kind of telepathy thing happening. No sooner would a student finish their assessment than Beth would have results in hand and the appropriate packet of information to guide the student on to the next step, test scores were recorded and filed, and all the while walk-in and phone traffic continued in the midst. Magic, I’m convinced.
But what impressed me most was the level of service provided to each of our students. I witnessed each student greeted with a smile and a promise to help, a concerted effort to both listen and respond to each student’s circumstance, care taken to explain the next steps and directions, and a level of teamwork that generally takes years to develop.
Congratulations to all in the assessment Center and to Director Diana Steele for assembling a great group of people. It was a pleasure to be part of it for a couple days.
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