General Education Assessment & Student Success

1. General Education Assessment & Student Success NEASC Assessment Workshop December 7, 2011 Jennifer Brown, University of Massachusetts Boston Office of Institutional Research & Policy Studies

2. UMass Boston • Public • Doctoral • Urban • Most recent Carnegie Basic Classification: RU/H: Research Universities (high research activity) • 16,000 students • 10,000 undergraduates • 8 Colleges • And we have a General Education Program Office of Institutional Research & Policy Studies

3. General Education program - Outcomes • Upon completion of the General Education curriculum, you will be able to: • • engage in critical reading and analysis• understand and respect human diversity• explore the principal approaches to knowledge• learn in depth• speak, listen, and write effectively• reason logically and quantitatively• use technology to further education• work independently and collaboratively • http://www.umb.edu/academics/vpass/undergraduate_studies/general_education_requirements/ Office of Institutional Research & Policy Studies

4. Operationalizing General Education • A critical operationalization of the general education outcome ‘ability to engage in critical reading and analysis’ is the Writing Proficiency requirement. • A critical operationalization of the general education outcome ‘ability toreason logically and quantitatively’ is the Quantitative Reasoning requirement, for the majority of students filled through completion of by the Quantitative Reasoning course Office of Institutional Research & Policy Studies

5. Assessing Student Learning Outcomes • In both these instances we have been doing lots of assessment • Writing Proficiency requirement • Quantitative Reasoning Office of Institutional Research & Policy Studies

6. How does the assessment contribute to Student Success? • Depends on the definition of student success – but in a broad way, we don’t really know … • We look at inputs (the courses intended to prepare for the WPR) • We look at the results of the common final exam (QR) • We feedback to faculty what seems to have been successful in attaining QR goals, • We provide preparatory classes after an attempt and a fail (WPR) Office of Institutional Research & Policy Studies

7. But we do not - • Look at how success in the WPR (or failure) contributes to retention/graduation • Look at how success (or failure) in the WPR contributes to attrition • Link QR performance to subsequent achievement (or lack of it), even thought we do work hard with those faculty for whom the QR prep. is most relevant to make sure the course fits with their needs Office of Institutional Research & Policy Studies

8. What next for IR? • We are starting to talk about what we can do to draw better links between these specific components of general education and student success • And that is what I want us to talk about in our breakout session… Office of Institutional Research & Policy Studies