(Page 19 of 21) - Teaching Cultural Perspectives to Future Army Officers at West Point authored by Forest, James.

Together, these multiple assessment methods – and the data produced by them – provide

the academic leadership at West Point with the ability to consistently monitor and improve the
Academic Program. To this end, the institution established an Assessment Steering Committee,
comprised of the chairs of each Goal Team, the Vice Dean for Education, the Associate Dean for
Academic Affairs, and the Assistant Dean for Academic Assessment. This committee meeting
regularly to review the framework, implementation, and assessment data for each of the ten
Academic Program Goals. Thus, the entire process is managed by the faculty, from the
grassroots levels (in the classroom), at the design, implementation and assessment levels (by the
multidisciplinary goal teams), and at the overarching conceptual level (by the Assessment
Steering Committee).

Conclusion and Lessons Learned
In sum, West Point continually works to refine and improve student outcomes by creating a
student-centered learning environment, driven by assessment data and a clear mandate for
developing qualities that are needed in our graduates to ensure our nation’s defense. Recognizing
the obvious limitations of West Point’s unique academic environment in terms of offering useful
comparisons, there are some lessons to be drawn from these efforts that may inform those of
other colleges and universities.

1. You must know your goals. An important lesson learned after years of engaging in these
efforts is that projected outcomes are necessary before gathering useful data to inform
strategies for change. In other words, an institution of higher education must have a clear
sense of what its goals and objectives are before attempting to define meaningful assessment
measures or collecting assessment data. Thus, a key question is how important is cultural
perspective to your institution?

2. You must establish benchmarks and standards for student achievement of those goals.
Curricular and assessment efforts at West Point are driven by an understanding of what
knowledge, skills and abilities are required of future Army officers. The world we live in is
increasingly characterized by technological, social, political, and economic change, resulting
in situations that are dynamic and complex. Army officers will be confronted with situations
that may have multiple issues at stake, with no single or dominant focus. Indeed, uncertainty
and change are constants of our world and of the military profession; officers must anticipate
the implications of such conditions for the future of our national security. Army officers must
also respond effectively to the complexity and uncertainty that will characterize the variety of
missions they will encounter in the years to come. Within the context of this dynamic
national security environment, future officers must be able to provide intellectual and ethical
leadership for the profession and the institution that is the United States Army. Consequently,
the intellectual and ethical development of cadets remains paramount to realizing the
Academy’s mission. Understanding the expected performance of an institution’s graduates –
in relation to the institution’s mission – is thus necessary before developing and
implementing programs that will lead to the accomplishment of the institution’s academic
program goals.