Executive Summary of the Learning Outcomes Assessment Model

The focus of the Learning Outcomes Assessment Model is student learning in the classroom and across the Institution. Drawing from the Community College of Philadelphia’s Mission Statement, the Assessment Task Force derived five core competencies that frame the learning environment encompassing the overall goals of general education and program/discipline curricula, at CCP. These core competencies include:

• Effective Communication
• Quantitative and Scientific reasoning
• Information and Technological Literacy
• Critical Thinking
• Responsible Citizenship
  

As students grow through their learning experiences at CCP, the goal is that they will achieve a high level of proficiency in these competencies through their cumulative learning experiences provided across all courses. Criteria instrumental in the development of this plan are highlighted below.

An effective assessment plan must:

• be aligned with the classroom instruction and learning goals.
• provide constructive feedback regarding learning outcomes to instructors, program and department heads, curriculum coordinators, Deans, and students.
• help students understand the elements of excellent work so that they may begin to develop the skills of self evaluation.
• incorporate assessment of the College’s general education requirements.
• provide standardized measures that accommodate all levels of learning.
• be fair and unbiased.
• satisfy the Middle States Commission on Higher Education’s charge that an institution establish a coherent set of learning goals, that these goals stem from the institutional mission, and that goals at the subordinate levels contribute to the attainment of goals at the higher levels.
• be simple and easy to administer.

Leadership for this ambitious model will be provided by the Director of Academic Assessment. Committees representing the five core competencies will be responsible for articulating appropriate learning outcomes for each competency and developing assessment rubrics that will serve as guides for targeting learning experiences and measuring outcomes.

Ideally, classroom assessments will be varied and frequent, direct and indirect, graded and ungraded with the goal of moving towards electronic portfolios and capstone courses for all students. Institutionally, the core competencies will provide an assessment focus on a rotating cycle beginning with Information and Technological Literacy in year one. Students’ proficiency scores, as measured by the related competency rubrics, will be coordinated with the midsemester grade submission process. This new data can be used to inform students and instructors about learning that has occurred in the classroom, inform departments regarding achievement of program learning outcomes, and provide a base from which to draw a sample to document learning outcomes across the institution.

Assessment is a dynamic and evolving process and this plan should not be considered a static model but rather an optimal beginning. The goal is to create an environment of continual growth and improvement in which students deepen their knowledge base, expand their abilities to think, problem-solve, and evaluate information, as well as foster their capacities for decision-making, communication, and responsible citizenship.

Read the whole plan here: http://www.ccp.edu/vpacaff/Learning.Outcomes.Assessment.Model.pdf