Abstract:
This study explored how residence life and housing departments and programs assessed the resident assistant (RA) training programs that they held during the 2012-13 academic year. The purpose of this research was to understand the role that these assessments might play in the implementation and improvement of future RA training programs. Little research has yet been conducted in this area, or on the RA training process at higher education institutions more generally (Bowman & Bowman, 1985; Frame, 2009; Koch, 2011). The study investigated various aspects of how residence life departments assessed their training programs, including whether the assessments were formal or informal; how often the assessments occurred; the intended audiences for the assessments; the tools and processes utilized in the assessments; and the ways in which the collected data were used. The qualitative data for this study were collected from surveys, documents submitted by respondents, and individual interviews. The survey was distributed in fall 2013 via email to over 400 higher education institutions in the South Eastern Association of Housing Officers (SEAHO) region. The data yielded a number of major findings, including that RA training programs utilized assessment to measure effectiveness of the programs and preparedness of the RAs. It was found, that most programs created their assessments internally, with the primary assessment audience being RAs themselves, and that the program leaders used the assessment data to frame upcoming trainings for current and future academic years. Until this study, there has been little assessment of graduate staff or campus partners, and the assessment that has been conducted has not been shared beyond the residential programs.