OUR SCHOLARSHIP AND PROGRAM EVALUATION
Faculty Perceptions of Climate for Diversity
Narda Quigley, PhD, and Kristin Broussard, PhD, examine the impact of leadership mindfulness training on faculty and leader perceptions of a climate for diversity, as well as how leader inclusivness impacts perceptions of climate for diversity and job satisfaction.
Community Demographics
The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion provides University data showing trends for students, full-time and part-time faculty, and staff.
Project Evaluation
VISIBLE conducts project evaluations using a multi-method approach to data collection to evaluate the implementation of project activities as well as overall project effectiveness.
The internal evaluation team, led by Dr. Seth Matthew Fishman, focuses on VISIBLE’s programs, trainings and workshops using pre-post-surveys, exit surveys and needs assessments. Internal evaluation reports provide formative feedback for the VISIBLE team to adjust future activities, while also providing immediate feedback on meeting the objectives for each program or event to determine short-term impact. These audits provide internal data enabling the team to monitor the effectiveness of the various activities and make improvements as necessary. Internal evaluation activities are planned carefully to minimize disruption to VISIBLE social science research activities.
Additionally, VISIBLE collaborates with Villanova’s Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness (OSPIE) and Office of Decision Support and Data Integrity (ODSDI) to gather data indicating the impact of the program on faculty hiring, retention and career advancement. In 2021-2022, VISIBLE collaborated with ODSDI to produce a baseline dataset on faculty composition and career advancement for departments in Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, in the Social and Behavioral Sciences (SBS), and in other disciplines that typically require STEM training. In 2022-2023, OPSIE and VISIBLE collaborated to introduce questions into two triennial campus surveys: the President’s Campus Climate Survey and the Higher Education Research Institute Faculty survey for Villanova.
VISIBLE also engages with external evaluator, Dr. Mariko Chang of Mariko Chang Consulting, Inc., to conduct a formative and summative evaluation of all project activities on an annual basis. A guiding evaluation question is used to examine the extent to which the project has reached its goals. The formative evaluation provides immediate feedback to enable the project team to address challenges as they arise and monitor progress toward project goals and intended impacts. At the end of the grant period, a summative evaluation will assess the extent to which the project has achieved its goals and assess the overall impact of the project.
Evaluators abide by the effective and ethical practices and guidelines for program evaluation conveyed in the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation’s (2010) Program Evaluation Standards and the American Evaluation Association’s (2004) Guiding Principles for Evaluators.