The College of Engineering at San Jose State University is scheduled for an accreditation visit in Fall 1999 and has decided to seek reaccreditation under the ABET 2000 criteria. An assessment implementation project has been active for the past two years within the College; with primary objectives of refining missions for programs, defining program outcome objectives, determining which components to assess, and developing appropriate metrics and methods. Longer term objectives of this project are to establish a continuous quality improvement philosophy in the College and to provide information for the ABET accreditation review.

This paper is an evaluation of the status of the implementation project to date and summarizes some of the significant results that might be considered by other institutions starting a similar project. The information presented represents results of actual experience with a limited reference to theoretical aspects of assessment. A protocol has been developed for this project which simultaneously educates faculty about assessment concepts while obtaining baseline data required to craft the long term assessment program. A prototype post-graduate assessment survey has been implemented and has had mixed results.

Other items presented in this paper include the overall planning and scheduling for the assessment implementation project, structure of the team leading the project, specific activities that have contributed to implementation of the project, and factors under consideration for each major project activity.