The 19-person ACE Task Force began in Spring 2018 as an effort to revise the end-of-semester Assessing the Classroom Environment (ACE) survey. The initial charge was to address the low response rates on the survey. After the second meeting, the committee agreed that the issues at hand were much larger, and more important. We agreed that assessment is a tool to increase the quality of teaching, and that our efforts should be on improving instruction while maintaining student voice and reducing well-documented bias in student ratings of instruction.

To address the broadened scope of the committee, we organized into three subcommittees: Revising the student ratings instrument, advancing peer observation, and improving policies. A summary of the efforts of each subcommittee, including data collected and governance consultations, is appended below. Each subcommittee met monthly until their work was completed, and an expanded committee (with members from other committees who wished to stay on board) on Policies for Assessing and Improving Instruction continues to meet.