PACE Celebration: A project like this takes a village!

The PACE Project began in August 2014 as a four-year initiative funded by The Language Flagship aiming to promote and sustain an ongoing culture of student-centered assessment and curricular improvement at the University of Minnesota.

The project includes three major components that aim at building greater student language proficiency:  proficiency testing, self-assessment, and professional and curricular development.

This project was designed and implemented collaboratively between the Language Center, CARLA and department chairs, coordinators and instructors from seven language programs:  Arabic, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and through the support of the broader language and technology communities. In total, at least 176 university instructors and staff helped with the planning or implementation of one or more of the three components:

• Contributing to the 2014 grant proposal
• Serving on the PACE Advisory Board
• Serving on the PACE Administrative Team
• Serving on the Professional Development Peer Team
• Incorporating assessment or self-assessment into their classes
• Presenting or facilitating a workshop or other event for instructors 
• Contributing to BOSSA development and implementation
• Contributing to curriculum development
• Providing support for data collection, technology implementation and budget decisions 
• And more!

The PACE Project wrapped up a busy fourth year on May 4, 2018 with an informal celebration and thank you to the 176 university employees who made it all possible. PACE PI Dan Soneson and CLA Dean John Coleman provided an overview of the project and thanked everyone for their participation. Approximately 60 instructors and staff were able to join the celebration, including a few people who have since left the university.

Dean Coleman leads the welcoming remarks at the May 4 event

The PACE Project administrative team would like to thank everyone for their support, encouragement, guidance and good will. This project was not always easy, especially for language instructors and coordinators who rearranged their syllabi to accommodate it (often in multiple ways). As a result of all this work, we have learned much about student language proficiency, and more importantly, students now better understand what they are capable of doing with their own language skills. As an added benefit, the project has helped bring the university language community together in new ways.

The “Tree of Thanks” includes the names of the 176 instructors and staff.

Coming soon: what we have learned from four years of the PACE Project and next steps.

The PACE Project is funded by a grant from The Language Flagship.