'Assessment Matters' at MCC: Regional conference focuses on student learning, improvement
Metropolitan Community College, Kansas City, will host a conference Friday, May 2, that’s expected to draw educators from colleges and universities across Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. The theme is assessment — the higher education version, not the one that involves property values.
At the Assessment Matters Regional Conference, attendees will share insights and explore strategies for boosting student learning
and more. The conference will be at MCC-Penn Valley’s Education Center.
This year actually marks the return of the assessment conference. It originated at Johnson County Community College and was held there between 2011 and 2021, but for two of those early years MCC hosted it here (2012 and 2014). Wherever the locale, MCCers were involved in the planning.
Assessment, for the uninitiated, “involves measuring what students know, think and can do as a result of their educational experiences, and using that evidence to inform decisions about curriculum, instruction and institutional effectiveness,” says Annalisa Gramlich, MCC’s executive director of curriculum and student learning.
This year’s comeback edition of the conference will feature a morning address from Sheri Barrett, a longtime peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission, MCC’s primary accreditor … a lunchtime keynote from Linda Garcia, executive director of CCCSE … and breakout sessions with titles such as “Assembling the Assessment Avengers,” “Assessment 101: A Primer” and a panel discussing “Formative Assessments that Matter.”
As for how this 2025 conference came about, Gramlich ran into Barrett at a professional event last fall. Barrett, then retired from JCCC, had led the planning for that college’s assessment conference. With JCCC no longer holding it, Barrett thought MCC might be a good spot for the conference’s second act. The idea was later proposed to MCC Chancellor Kimberly Beatty, who has been very supportive, Gramlich says.
MCC plans to host the reborn event yearly or every other year. “We hope to get feedback from our attendees to guide that decision,” Gramlich says.
Speaking of attendees, organizers are expecting 75 to 100 people this year. Cost is $125. Learn more at this link.
“My goal is for the Assessment Matters conference to find a permanent home at MCC and be an asset to our community as well as the regional area,” Gramlich says.