Though the term “climate assessment” sounds like something strictly relegated to the field of clinical research, the implications of climate assessment are both profound and practical. In this age of accountability, administrators must provide concrete evidence to superiors or to outside funding sources that their programs are meeting the needs of their target audiences and should continue to be supported. Within higher education, administrators must be able to:
- Effectively interpret and weigh data from a variety of sources (students, faculty, staff, facilities, Registrar and Admissions offices, institutional research units, etc.);
- Report this data as necessary to superiors or to the public;
- Develop strategic action plans to address problems or questions the data suggests; and
- Understand the meaning of data, specifically how data reflects upon an institution’s responsiveness to important issues such as student retention, resource distribution, instructional quality, support services, and overall diversity of the student population.
Assessing an institution’s climate towards students with disabilities cuts across all these domains and is a natural extension of basic but important demographic variables such as ethnicity, gender, age, class status, major of study, GPA, English as a second language, etc. When academic services and outcomes are paired with these kinds of diversity indicators, they collectively become key factors in government and private funding decisions, institutional rankings, and program evaluations. Beyond the obvious fiscal need for diversity indicators, including disability-related variables (e.g., disability status, building accessibility, use of accommodations) as part of diversity measures has the potential added benefits of:
- Enriching the pool of institutional data collected on student outcomes;
- Expanding or forming studies on retention that capture educational trends over time;
- Providing or supplementing data on instructional quality;
- Providing or supplementing data on the quality or quantity of student academic and support services;
- Resolving accessibility/accommodation concerns in a more informed and expeditious manner; and
- Being relatively easy to collect and access.
Given that many units on campus routinely and systematically collect demographic data across a range of settings and services (units such as the Registrar’s office, Admissions, Student Services, and Multicultural Affairs), adding disability indicators to established databases or data collection procedures should not require a great deal of extra cost or effort.
Arguably, the greatest benefit afforded by assessing an institution’s climate towards students with disabilities is the answer to the fundamental question “how are we doing?” While many more students with disabilities are entering college than in years past, a large percentage of these enrollees drop out prior to obtaining a degree (U.S. Department of Education, NCES, 1999). A climate assessment can indicate reasons why students may be dropping out and lead to changes that will encourage ALL students to remain in college.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) encourages Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to track and improve retention rates of students with disabilities as significant indicators of educational quality. The USDOE’s Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GEPRA) established a series of objectives for the advancement of education for students with disabilities, addressing in particular institutional accountability, capacity, and performance indicators focused upon increasing attendance and degree attainment. Specifically, GEPRA Goal #5 speaks to the need of postsecondary educators to Enhance the Quality of and Access to Postsecondary and Adult Education: Increasing Opportunities for Students and the Effectiveness of Institutions.
Participation in climate assessment activities as presented within this module will provide postsecondary education personnel the necessary processes and resources to address the USDOE GEPRA requirements, resulting in improved access, attendance, and degree completion for students with disabilities.
