Carefully planning your interfaith assessment leads to an efficient process and—most importantly—useful assessment findings. Interfaith America’s two-part assessment planning resources help you determine what you should assess (Part 1) and how to do so (Part 2). If you have not already completed First Steps for Effective Interfaith Assessment: What Should I Assess? (Part 1), we suggest you start with that document if you are unclear what to assess. If you have completed Part 1—or if you already know you want to assess students’ learning and development—you are ready to begin this assessment planning workbook (Part 2). This resource can be used by anyone who wants or needs to collect information about what students learn from interfaith programs and/or the effectiveness of their interfaith programs.
Completing the following workbook will enable you to develop a clear assessment plan and timeline for completing your interfaith assessment. It covers each step of the assessment planning process, providing all the information you need to prepare your interfaith assessment project. The workbook is divided into four steps with specific questions to answer. You can use this workbook individually or collectively as a structure for group work related to assessing students’ learning and development. You can complete the workbook all at once, or you may wish to take more time to discuss the information with others.
This workbook provides information related to the following four steps involved in planning an effective assessment project (Henning & Roberts, 2016):
For each of these four steps, you will answer specific questions that directly map to your interfaith assessment timeline below. You can use the timeline to understand the various steps of your interfaith assessment project and to keep things organized.