The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) offers a distinctive approach to assessment and accountability in higher education. The CLA uses new assessment instruments that present complex realistic problems or performance tasks. The institution – and not the student – is the primary unit of analysis. The performance tasks require students to analyze complex material and to construct written responses that demonstrate their abilities to think critically, reason analytically, and communicate clearly and cogently. The CLA is designed to measure an institution’s contribution, or value added, to the development of these competencies, including the effects of changes to curriculum and instructional methods. The results are designed to assist faculty and administrators to improve teaching and learning.
The fundamental rationale for the CLA is the imperative to improve our citizens’ higher order thinking skills (critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and written communication). This imperative is made more urgent in the Information Age, which places a greater priority on our students’ abilities to access, structure, and use information rather than only accrue facts. CAE has adapted the CLA for community colleges, a vital part of the higher education sector. We are therefore pleased to present the Community College Learning Assessment (CCLA).
THE ASSESSMENT MOVEMENT
While postsecondary institutions are not unfamiliar with assessments, recent trends have re-emphasized and magnified the role of assessment on campuses across the country. Recent news headlines have featured a growing movement of stakeholders requesting increased transparency from our nation’s universities and colleges, demanding an answer to a simple question: How much are our students learning from attending your school?
Why is the answer to such a direct question not immediately available? While inputs and indirect measures such as average SAT scores, rates of graduation, retention, student to teacher ratio, etc. are in plentiful supply, direct measures – namely, student learning outcomes – are not. Put simply, inputs and indirect measures tell a fraction of the story. Assessment, especially that which is focused on student learning outcomes, begins to fill in the rest. Assessment enables institutions to strengthen their social contract with the public and to re-emphasize their core mission: undergraduate learning.
COMMUNITY COLLEGES AND ASSESSMENT
As the assessment movement expands across higher education, it is important to focus on community colleges because they comprise such a critical piece of the postsecondary landscape. With more than 1,100 two-year institutions, community colleges enroll over 11 million students, this is 46% of all U.S. undergraduates. Community colleges are a critical gateway into postsecondary education.
Clearly, community colleges can not be overlooked in conversations about the quality of undergraduate learning. According to a National Center for Education Statistics report (2003), roughly 25% of enrolled community college students indicate that they expect to transfer to four-year institutions. Thus, student learning outcomes are just as important to community colleges as measures of the preparedness of their exiting students, but also act as indicators to four-year institutions of exiting students’ preparedness to enter baccalaureate degree programs. Moreover, the mission statements of most community colleges emphasize the need for improving the skills of all their students.
The existing culture of assessment prepares two-year institutions for the CCLA as it employs a value-added approach. This unique approach is especially appropriate for community colleges which may add more value in the growth of student learning than many four-year institutions.
Nearly half of all community college students in the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) (2005) indicated “transfer to a four-year college or university” as a primary motivation for attending community college. With this in mind, a combination of the CLA and the CCLA among two and four-year institutions that have articulation agreements in place can provide evidence-based support for fluid transfer agreements. Additionally, community college systems in states that do not currently have seamless transfer agreements with four-year institutions could use the clear indications of college-level learning from the CCLA to bolster their efforts. Such a design provides an opportunity for community college graduates to demonstrate their readiness for baccalaureate programs.
Community colleges also play a crucial role in increasing college attendance rates of minority populations. Nationally, 30% of community college students are members of minority groups. In addition to the sheer number of minority students enrolled, community colleges appear to be particularly effective in helping these students learn the skills that colleges and universities deem important.
THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE LEARNING ASSESSMENT: VALUE-ADDED ASSESSMENT
The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) begins to answer the question how much students are learning in school. Currently, the CLA is the only assessment that examines the degree to which institutions contribute (their “value added”) to their students’ development in critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving and written communication. This information provides a benchmark against which to assess the effectiveness of their programs in improving student proficiency in the areas measured. As stated earlier, the value-added approach is especially appropriate for community colleges because they may add more value in the growth of student learning than many four-year institutions.
The CLA’s major focus is on measuring higher order thinking skills. This is especially salient as new theories of learning stress that the meaning of knowledge has changed from being able to recall information to being able to find and use it. It is important to teach students how to think. The Information Age makes the need for improved higher order skills urgent. Therefore, the CLA measures critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and written communication.
Please refer to the table at the end of this document to review some different options of participating in the CCLA, as well as guidelines for each option.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
How do we give the test? The CCLA is an on-line exam, proctored by your faculty. Proctor training and technical support is provided.
How many students do we test and when? For the cross-sectional design, we test 100 of your entering students in the fall and 100 of your exiting students in the spring (for eligibility criteria of students, please refer to the chart on the following page). In addition to one of our CLA measures, students take a brief, timed, multiple choice aptitude test (the Scholastic Level Exam). Total testing time is approximately 105 minutes.
What results do we get? You will receive an Interim Report, an Institutional Report, and a Student Data file. All results are kept in strict confidence, and school results are only reported anonymously.
Institutional Reports provide important signals of overall and comparative performance at the school level. Student Data Files can be linked to locally-collected data (e.g., course-taking patterns, grades, portfolio assessments, participation in extracurricular activities, etc.).
How much does it cost? The cost is $6,500 for a one-year cross-sectional design with an additional $25 charge for each student tested over the 100 each fall and spring. If you are interested in a more specialized design model, please contact CAE staff to discuss pricing.
How can we get more information or sign up? Contact Chris Jackson at (212) 217-0845 or cjackson@cae.org
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