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Bonner Program Tracking & Assessment
Overview | Guides | Campus Examples | Documents to Download
Bonner Program and Institutional Self-Assessment
The Bonner Program aims to create positive impact in three areas - student development, community partnerships, and campus infrastructure and culture of community engagement. This instrument — the Self-Assessment Tool for Bonner Programs and Campus-wide Institutionalization — is designed to highlight important indicators of a high-quality, comprehensive Bonner Program and a campus-wide infrastructure for community engagement. The tool was first developed in 2005 and revised in 2012 and again in 2017-2018 to reflect emerging research and cutting edge practices and remains the same this year. The content overlaps with (and in some cases are informed by) other nationally recognized rubrics for civic engagement, such as those developed by AAC&U, Campus Compact, and Campus-Community Partnerships for Health, as well as Barbara Holland, Andrew Furco, and Marshall Welch (NIIICE). More specifically, this instrument incorporates components that are tied to the frameworks and required activities of the Bonner Program and identified as best practices. With five levels for each indicator, it supports a developmental perspective and can help to identify next stages for progress. In 2022, we have also integrated several items from the Project Here Institutional Assessment Tool, in which Foundation staff participated as co- authors, which gauge important dimensions of the institution’s work on diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism. In 2022, the tool includes 55 items.
Making the Case Guide
More than ever, most institutions of higher education face structural and financial challenges that compel them to demonstrate the value and return on investment for their work. With limited resources, institutions face difficult decisions regarding prioritization of programs and units. The "Making the Case" guide provides step-by-step instructions to support a Bonner Program and community engagement unit to produce a comprehensive report that describes the positive impacts of this work. This guide is designed to help your center and program evaluate and make case for its Bonner Program and center’s work, much in the same way that other units or departments might articulate their value. Visit the "Guides" section of this page to access the "Making the Case" guide.
Student Impact survey
In the past decade, the Bonner Program and the field of campus-community engagement have grown and matured. New research has: a) linked community engagement with effective teaching and learning; b) pointed to its effects on students political and democratic engagement; and c) linked engagement with psychosocial well-being. With this learning in mind, the Bonner Foundation set out to redesign its Student Impact Survey. In 2020, the Bonner Foundation released this comprehensive report, which reflects implementation of the new Student Impact Survey across the national network. The report pointed to clear positive impacts, including on students’ academic learning. Click to download the full report.
