Recharge & Reset Year

Overview

In Academic Year 25-26, the University of New Mexico will temporarily pause assessment reporting to enable all academic programs to recharge and reset their assessment. UNM Albuquerque and branch campuses reached a 65.7% assessment submission rate in AY 23-24, the highest submission rate in four years. That's great progress. At the same time, Office of Assessment and Academic Program Review (OAAPR) analysis of academic program assessment indicates that the majority of programs are assessing improvement that has long since been achieved. Overall, UNM assessment can be improved through the introduction of new measures, practices, and goals.

In AY 25-26, a year's break from reporting will enable academic programs to recharge and refresh. The OAAPR has created a new Assessment Plan Template (coming soon) and a Assessment Reflection for implementing your new assessment. These will support you in developing a refreshed approach to assessment. Your updated assessment plan should be submitted to your College Assessment Review Committee (CARC) Chair in Fall 2026 (by the due date set by your  college/school/branch). In AY 26-27, the University of New Mexico will restart academic program assessment reporting based on your new assessment plan. From AY 27-28 to AY 31-32, all academic programs will follow the same five-year "plan cycle" or timeline for evidence collection and reporting. This timeline will align with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) assurance and accreditation cycle.

New Assessment Materials

• Official Recharge & Reset Overview Campus Release
• Assessment Reflection Template
• New Assessment Plan/Report Template (coming soon, continue to use the current for AY24-25)

Deadlines

• Current: Please continue to write up and submit your reports for AY 24/25 and submit to your CARC lead as usual.
• Due Fall 2026: Complete assessment reflection utilizing the couple of assessment cycles, reports and most current assessment plan
• Due Fall 2026: Complete new assessment plan utilizing:
  • your assessment and curriculum committees
  • unit vision & mission
  • learning outcomes scale up and down to include all levels of degrees
  • accreditation reports
  • APRs, strategic plan
  • industry and discipline standards
  • shared student learning outcomes with other entities such as DEI, community engagement, or interdisciplinary programs

Support and Resources

Please utilize your reflection and the following assessment resources to update and/or create a new assessment plan:

1. Assessment plans are for an entire degree program. Map outcomes to your entire set of academic courses to align representation and understanding of which student populations and which content areas are robust.
2. For more information, see the Curriculum Mapping PowerPoint on our workshop’s page.
3. Please refer to the best practices guidelines for suggestions toward streamlining assessment, creating overarching goals for all degree programs, and customizing outcomes for each degree level.
4. Contact your college/school assessment committee chair for feedback, consultation, and/or additional assessment ideas.
5. Contact the OAAPR for goals/outcomes, data collection, and data analysis support: assess@unm.edu

FAQs

• What if I just completed a new assessment plan during the last assessment cycle?
  • If you created a new assessment plan recently, please copy that plan information into the new assessment plan template to be submitted.
• Does this Recharge & Reset year include a pause on General Education assessment?
  • The Recharge & Reset year is solely a pause on academic program assessment. The general education assessment cycle continues as normal.
• Is the new UNM branch assessment model included in the Recharge & Reset?
  • Any branch participating in the new branch assessment model will continue their assessment cycle as normal since it is merged with general education assessment. Any branch campus participating in the traditional UNM academic program assessment model will pause on their academic assessment cycle in the Recharge 
• What if my program/accreditor still requires annual assessment data?
  • Some program standards may require you to still collect data, even if the institutional assessment office does not require you to report. Please follow the guidance of your accrediting body and/or discipline standards.
• What if I would like to still collect annual assessment data?
  • Please do, but you do not need to provide an institutional assessment report during the recharge & reset year. If you choose to submit, we will accept any report to be documented in the UNM Assessment Repository. The feedback cycle will be paused by OAAPR for academic year FY 25-26.

If you have not been part of the annual institutional assessment cycle and need to learn about UNM requirements, need a refresher, or more information on Recharge & Reset, please contact us at assess@unm.edu.