The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) offers a distinctive approach to assessment and accountability in higher education. The institution – and not the student – is the primary unit of analysis. The CLA’s open-ended 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 skills (analytic reasoning and evaluation, writing effectiveness, writing mechanics, problem solving). 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 Recent trends have re-emphasized and magnified the role of assessment on campuses across the country. 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 6.8 million degree-seeking students; this is 43% of all U.S. undergraduates, and 40% of first-time freshmen (NCES, 2007), 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. Community colleges also play a crucial role in increasing college attendance rates of minority populations. Nationally, 40% of community college students are members of minority groups, and 42% are the first generation to attend an institution of higher education (NCES, 2007).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 analytic reasoning and evaluation, writing effectiveness, writing mechanics, and problem solving. This information provides a benchmark against which to assess the effectiveness of their programs in improving student proficiency in the areas measured. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS How many students do we test and when? Our standard model involves testing a representative sample of 100 of your entering students in the fall and 100 of your exiting students in the spring. How long is the test? Students are randomly assigned to a 90-minute Performance Task or 75-minute Analytic Writing Task. In addition to one of our CLA measures, students take a 12-minute multiple-choice aptitude test (the Scholastic Level Exam). Total testing time is approximately 105 minutes. What results do we get? You will receive an Institutional Report and Student Data File after fall and spring test administrations. All results are kept in strict confidence and school results are reported anonymously. Institutional Reports provide important signals of 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.). Sample reports and data files are available upon request. How much does it cost? The cost is $6,500 for one year 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 CLA staff to discuss pricing. How can we get more information or sign up? Contact Chris Jackson at (212) 217-0845 or cjackson@cae.org.