General Education Assessment

Purpose: General education refers to a set of knowledge and skills that an institution agrees that each student should gain as a result of their time at the institution, regardless of discipline or program. While course assessment is one of the primary ways that we understand and improve how well students are learning at the course and program level, general education assessment lets us know whether all students are gaining the foundational knowledge and skills that they need for success in their programs of study as well as meeting their academic and career goals.

General education assessment and Middle States accreditation

The Middle States Commission on Higher Education Standard III: Design and Delivery of the Student Learning Experience, calls for “a general education program” that

• “Offers a sufficient scope to draw students into new areas of intellectual experience, expanding their cultural and global awareness and cultural sensitivity, and preparing them to make well-reasoned judgements outside as well as within their academic field.”
• General education should be “designed so that students acquire and demonstrate essential skills including at least oral and written communication, scientific and quantitative reasoning, critical analysis and reasoning, technological competency, and information literacy. “
• In addition, “consistent with mission, the general education program also includes the study of values, ethics, and diverse perspectives”

General Education Essential Skills and Definitions

The general education Essential Skills were established by a multi-disciplinary group of faculty as part of the general education revision that began in 2017 and was implemented in Fall 2021.

The Essential Skills were chosen based on the Middle States criteria referred to above as well as conversations with transfer partners and employers and national data on employer expectations.

The Essential Skills are

• Writing, Research, and Information Literacy (WRI)
• Technological Competency (TEC)
• Quantitative Reasoning (QURE)
• Scientific Reasoning (SCRE)
• Oral Communication/Creative Expression (OCCE)
• Cultural Analysis and Interpretation (CAI)

Essential Skills subcommittees also developed the definitions of the skills, which can be found in the College catalog: https://ccp.edu/college-catalog/general-education-requirements

The Essential Skills definitions were created with assessment in mind, with a focus on action verbs “synthesize,” “analyze,” “examine,” “describe,” “create,” etc.

• The Essential Skills definitions, broken into different elements, form general education measures, or GEMs, that we use to create a rubric that allows each faculty member to assess achievement on the same Essential Skills, even when they are teaching different courses.

General Education Assessment and Curriculum Development

• For a course to meet the requirements of an Essential Skill, it must go through the curriculum development process, including review by the General Education Essential Skills (GEES) Core Committee and approval by the Academic and Student Success Council.
• The College’s course development template includes space for a rationale for the course meeting the Essential Skill.
• The GEES Core Committee uses course evaluation rubrics to determine whether a course meets the skill. Course evaluation rubrics are based on the published Essential Skill definition and cover criteria these criteria:
  • CLO alignment with Essential Skill definition
  • Course topics and/or activities clearly demonstrate how the course meets the Essential Skill
  • Assignments are transparent, with a clearly stated purpose, alignment with CLOs, and clear criteria for success
  • Assignments promote critical thinking
  • Assignments use inclusive language

General Education Assessment Process and Timeline. The general education assessment cycle begins with development and design.

• Faculty who teach courses that meet the Essential Skill are invited to review and contribute to the course assessment rubric and assignment alignment tool.
• Course assessment rubrics, like course evaluation rubrics, are also based on the Essential Skills definitions, but they are for evaluating student artifacts (e.g., papers, final exams, hands-on assignments).
• The assignment alignment tool, also based on the Essential Skill definition, assists faculty in evaluating whether the artifact to be assessed is in alignment with the Essential Skill and reviewing the overall transparency and clarity of the assignment.

Following development and design, is data collection

• In the early years of the new general education system, we collected data during  a pilot in the fall semester in order to discover challenges and find ways to address them. The pilot assessment is generally due in the weeks just prior to, or just after the spring semester begins.
• Following the fall pilot, we conducted a spring assessment at scale, including, as much as possible, all sections of the courses identified as meeting that ES. Scaled assessment is generally due in the weeks just prior to, or just after the fall semester begins.
• Transition here from the pilot to the adopted plan outlined below.

Once the data is collected, data analysis occurs early in the semester

• Faculty who participated in general education assessment are asked to review the results of the data and provide reflections, observations, and ideas for continuous improvement.
• Department heads, program coordinators, course coordinators, and the GEES Core Committee are also asked to participate in data analysis and contribute to continuous improvement planning.  
• Many departments are already addressing gaps in achieving the Essential Skills through related course assessment activities, and these are added to the plans for continuous improvement.

Data driving can come in many forms in general education assessment and can occur in the fall or spring semesters.

• One way to drive the data is the annual general education assessment report, which reports key findings from the data and data analysis, reflections and recommendations from faculty, and plans for continuous improvement.
  • The annual general education report is usually finalized in October.
• General education data driving can also take the form of changes that affect teaching and learning, curriculum changes, including new or further emphasizing existing materials, special projects,

Spotlight on links to improving student experience

• All students who plan to earn a degree from Community College of Philadelphia are required to take a specific set of courses in order to satisfy their general education requirements. Since the College creates these requirements, it is incumbent on the College to ensure that, if students satisfy them, they will indeed be proficient in the broad set of skills expected of a comprehensive liberal education. We address that important issue through the assessment and continuous improvement of general education.
• The breadth of the knowledge and skills defined under the six General Education Essential Skills is intended to adequately prepare students for the remainder of their educational and professional careers. Improvements made as a result of assessing general education have the potential to affect all Community College of Philadelphia students’ proficiency and fluency in those areas.

Strategic Plan Assessment

• Purpose: The Strategic plan is an integral part of assessment in higher education.
• The strategic plan, therefore, serves the purpose of providing a framework within which the College can focus its priorities as it relates to its mission to ensure the expectations and educational aspirations of  students are realized.
• The value proposition associated with strategic plans include streamlining institutional priorities, developing a roadmap on how to accomplish the priorities (six pillars), regularly assessing them for continuous improvement, and making innovative changes as needed with resource implications.
• Connections to AES, Budget, Student Success: As administrative and student support service units, AES assessment findings are important to the improvement of teaching and learning at the College.
• They also assist in prioritizing resource allocation through associated action plans to address observed assessment gaps.
• Budgetary resource allocation makes it possible for innovative solutions to be adopted to improve student success.
• Of importance to this process is the connection between AES assessment and strategic plan assessment.
• Through mapping between AES goals and applicable pillars of the strategic plan, annual AES assessments demonstrate evidence of progress made in the accomplishment of college mission and strategic plan.
• Ultimately, the goal of AES assessment is to promote continuous improvement using assessment findings to adopt innovative practices that contribute to student success.

Middle States Processes

• Purpose: The College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE). The purpose of the accreditation is to demonstrate public confidence in the learning opportunities offered at the College as well as degrees awarded to students by virtue of coherence and rigor in the curriculum coupled with student support services that enrich the educational experiences of students.
• The quality education offered through the accreditation process has the value of not just making it possible for students to get federal financial aid, but also ensuring that students earn reputable and recognizable degrees that make graduates employable upon graduation.
• Long Term Planning: Through self-study accreditation process, the College is able to plan in the long term what its priorities should be, identify a process to track progress through assessment in alignment with the strategic plan. Interventions are implemented where applicable based on assessment results to improve the learning experiences of students. 
• Annual Reporting: To ensure that educational institutions are up to task in meeting the accreditation requirements, the accrediting body requires the submission of annual reports known as the Annual Institutional Update (AIU). Included in this report is the student success metric of the three-year graduation rate of the College.
• The intent is to ensure that students have the support needed to graduate timely from the College.
• Self-Study: In the spirit of continuous improvement and integrity of accreditation, the College undergoes a self-study with MSCHE every eight years.
• With the recent successful completion of our self-study visit, the next self-study for the College is scheduled for 2030-2031.
• As part of the self-study process, MSCHE expects of the College to be in compliance with the seven standards of accreditation, four Requirements of Affiliation, the five principles of accreditation examined from the lens of the seven accreditation standards.
• MSCHE will update the standards of accreditation as a way of ensuring institutional accountability and protecting educational quality. The standards were most recently updated in 2023. The fourteenth edition of the standards includes five guiding principles: 1) mission-centric, 2) Centrality of student experience, 3) reflection on diversity, equity, and inclusion, 4) emphasis on data and evidence-based decision-making, and 5) innovation as an essential part of continuous improvement.
• Prior to the start of the self-study process, a self-study institute is organized by the accrediting body to educate the college accreditation liaison and self-study co-chairs about the self-study process.
• Site Visit: A site visit occurs to conclude the self-study process.
• The process is composed of peers from institutions of a similar type and size who visit the College after the self-study report is completed and submitted to MSCHE.
• The purpose of the visit is to verify evidence submitted in support of the self-study and make the determination to either re-affirm accreditation or identify areas the College appears not be in compliance with and request for follow up reports to establish compliance. After full compliance is established, accreditation is re-affirmed.

Budget Process

• Purpose: The purpose of budgeting in the process is to ensure that resources are adequately available and allocated to address assessment challenges such that the College can improve upon its programs and services offered to students and the campus community. It is also to ensure the availability and allocation of resources to address equity gaps to improve student success. 
• To ensure that institutions are making good use of their assessment findings in the allocation of budgetary resources, budgeting and resource allocation plays an important part in the Middle States accreditation process. 
• It is, therefore, of no surprise that Standard 6 of the accreditation standards focuses on Planning, Resources and Institutional Improvement, with budgeting being an important component.