title: The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, Version 1.0: A Valid and Equitable Tool to Measure Transformation of Life Sciences Departments at All Institution Types.
abstract: The PULSE Vision & Change Rubrics, version 1.0, assess life sciences departments' progress toward implementation of the principles of the Vision and Change report. This paper reports on the development of the rubrics, their validation, and their reliability in measuring departmental change aligned with the Vision and Change recommendations. The rubrics assess 66 different criteria across five areas: Curriculum Alignment, Assessment, Faculty Practice/Faculty Support, Infrastructure, and Climate for Change. The results from this work demonstrate the rubrics can be used to evaluate departmental transformation equitably across institution types and represent baseline data about the adoption of the Vision and Change recommendations by life sciences programs across the United States. While all institution types have made progress, liberal arts institutions are farther along in implementing these recommendations. Generally, institutions earned the highest scores on the Curriculum Alignment rubric and the lowest scores on the Assessment rubric. The results of this study clearly indicate that the Vision & Change Rubrics, version 1.0, are valid and equitable and can track long-term progress of the transformation of life sciences departments. In addition, four of the five rubrics have broad applicability and can be used to evaluate departmental transformation by other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Kingsborough Community College-CUNY, Brooklyn, NY 11235.
authors.forename: Loretta
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brancaccio-Taras
authors.affiliation: Life Sciences Department, Everett Community College, Everett, WA 98201.
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pape-Lindstrom
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Pace University, New York, NY 10038 mkelly2@pace.edu.
authors.forename: Marcy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Peteroy-Kelly
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC 29528.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aguirre
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Georgia Gwinnett College, Lawrenceville, GA 30043.
authors.forename: Judy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Awong-Taylor
authors.affiliation: Curtin University, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia.
authors.forename: Teri
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Balser
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE) and.
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Cahill
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE) and.
authors.forename: Regina F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Frey
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jack
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Truman State University, Kirksville, MO 63501.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kelrick
authors.affiliation: Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs, Doane College, Crete, NE 68333.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Marley
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130.
authors.forename: Kathryn G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131.
authors.forename: Marcy
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Osgood
authors.affiliation: College of Science and Mathematics, University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, VI 00802.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.affiliation: College of Sciences and Technology, University of Houston-Downtown, Houston, TX 77002.
authors.forename: J Akif
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Uzman
authors.affiliation: Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education (CIRCLE) and.
authors.forename: Jiuqing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001690:Biological Science Disciplines / Q000193:education*; D019992:Databases as Topic; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D005178:Faculty; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014495:Universities