Assessment Plan for General Education
(Approved – General Education Subcommittee, Spring 2001)

This assessment plan is intended to assist in the systematic assessment of the General Education program at California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA). Because General Education is an all-university program that affects students and programs from across campus, every effort has been taken to develop a plan that incorporates the perspectives of the array of disciplines that compose the University. The major goal in this assessment plan is to assist in improving, as well as assuring, the quality of the General Education program.

A. Definition and Philosophy of General Education at CSULA,
(University Policy, 2001)

California State University, Los Angeles is a comprehensive institution that offers educational opportunities to students as varied as the city’s population. Cal State L.A. has a special mission to provide an educational experience that recognizes and takes full advantage of this diversity, while emphasizing the knowledge, experience, and ethical concerns common to all people.

The General Education program enriches the lives of students as they acquire knowledge, learn to think critically, and become acquainted with the methodologies of the various disciplines. Students also learn to prepare for participation in a democracy, to appreciate a sense of shared cultural heritage, and to understand the environment. Students experience self-discovery and personal growth and recognize them as lifelong processes.

A modified General Education (GE) program was implemented in Fall 1998. Cal State Los Angeles undertook this revision of the General Education program after its internal review of the program and the University’s ten-year re-accreditation by WASC. New philosophy and mission statements for General Education were developed as a result of extensive consultation with faculty from across the University. The statement of philosophy for GE recognized that Cal State LA has a special charge to provide an educational experience that takes full advantage of its diversity, while emphasizing the knowledge, experiences, and ethical concerns common to all people. The GE mission statement focused on developing three separate areas:

1. Knowledge and understanding of themselves, their social and natural environment, and a wide range of cultural achievements,
2. Firm command of communication and analytical skills; and
3. Moral commitment to their fellow human beings, and an awareness of ethical and social concerns.

After the development of the new philosophy and mission statements, and approval by the Academic Senate, faculty began development of lower division and upper division courses. Lower division courses are composed in blocks, such as, natural sciences, arts and humanities, etc. At the upper division level, courses are organized around themes so students might understand a topic from three different perspectives. This interdisciplinary course sequence provides common topic and course inter-relatedness in nine theme areas. The emphasis on diversity is provided by the requirement of at least two courses that are developed to explore the richness of diversity and its significance in the culture. All the courses in the General Education program require writing assignments and active learning experiences.

A modification of the University policy on assessment was approved in December 1999. The modified policy requires all programs to develop an assessment plan that identifies goals and objectives for student learning outcomes, the identification of assessment measures, a time line for assessment activities, and a description of how assessment results are used to improve the program. The policy also directs the General Education Subcommittee (GES) to assess the GE program in collaboration with units that offer GE courses. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) validated the campus assessment policy with recommendations from their site-visit in Winter 1999, suggesting the design and implementation of assessment plans. In particular, it was recommended that outcomes assessment for transfer students and the upper-division general education program should be included in this assessment. In addition, the University reports to the CSU Chancellor’s office the plan for assessing General Education and the methods for using information learned from assessment to improve the GE program.

At the end of Winter Quarter 1999, an Ad Hoc GE Assessment Faculty Working Group was created to assist in the development of an assessment plan for General Education, with funding support from lottery grants proposed by Dr. Virginia Hunter, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, and Executive Secretary of the General Education Subcommittee. The Working Group began in Spring1999, consulting with academic departments and programs, including over 70 faculty members who teach GE classes, department chairs and curricular deans. Consultation took the form of direct meetings with faculty, an open house, and extensive e-mail discussions. These discussions became the basis for the Fall 1999, Academic Senate newsletter, which included GE goals and objectives, "Guiding Principles for General Education Assessment", and a timeline for development of the assessment plan. With the distribution of the newsletter, further consultation with faculty from across campus was sought for all components of the plan proposal.

To acquire additional knowledge about program assessment, the GE Assessment Faculty Working Group attended the Assessment Institute in San Diego, CA, sponsored by the Pennsylvania State University’s National Center on Postsecondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment. Assessment experts at the institute reviewed the CSULA draft goals and objectives and suggested that the document was too extensive. It was recommended that the draft be amended to broaden the goals and objectives, since this was to be assessment of the GE program as a whole, and not specific courses. The draft document was re-focused and revised once again. The goals and objectives were restructured from twenty-five separate goals to eight goals that covered broader areas, and captured the common themes of the GE program.

In Winter 2000, the revised draft was sent to all faculty of the University for further input and further refinement of the goals and objectives and in the construction of measurements for assessing blocks B, C, D, and upper division themes. The results of this extensive consultation are evident in the final goals and objectives for GE learning outcomes contained in this report.

During this period of consultation, the Working Group also reviewed numerous assessment measures and procedures such as standardized tests, portfolio assessment, oral presentations, student surveys, and the University Writing Proficiency Examination. The review included pilot test studies to evaluate the efficacy of certain measures in assessing General Education.

At the conclusion of the development of the goals and objectives for assessment, the extensive review of various measures used for assessment, completion of the pilot studies, and broad campus consultation, the GE Assessment Faculty Working Group submitted their assessment plan proposal to the General Education Subcommittee in Fall 2000.

The following is a summary of the guiding principles, and the goals and objectives formed to govern the direction and content of the assessment plan. The eight goals address each block of the General Education program, as well as the upper division theme. Following each goal are the specific objectives and recommended assessment measures to accomplish each objective.

The following Guiding Principles have been developed, based on best assessment practices, to steer the direction, development, and implementation of the assessment plan. These principles should guide the assessment of student learning outcomes for the General Education program at California State University/Los Angeles.

This test has a fifteen-year history as a tool for assessing learning outcomes. Developed by the Educational Testing Service and the College Board, this is a standardized test that focuses on skills developed through GE courses rather than on knowledge acquired about the subjects taught, by testing college level reading, writing, critical thinking and math within the context of the humanities, natural sciences and social sciences. Although the pilot test data indicate relatively lower scores from students on our campus, this test is well suited for long-term data collection and is recommended as a viable tool to assess a variety of areas. As part of the commitment to using it, the following should be established:

1. The test will provide meaningful information that can be used to evaluate and strengthen the GE program.
2. Efforts should be made to ensure that our students would take the exam seriously.

The WPE is a major assessment device used to evaluate the proficiency of undergraduate and graduate students’ writing skills at CSULA. In addition, the WPE can also be utilized to accomplish the assessment of other GE goals. In a pilot study, the WPE was used to assess student appreciation and understanding of diversity. Using an essay prompt developed specifically for the study, and a rating rubric based on the goals and objectives relevant to diversity in the GE program, the study determined that the WPE could successfully be used to assess writing skills while also serving as an appropriate assessment measure for diversity. Another possible use of the WPE may be in the assessment of the GE goal regarding student awareness of ethical and social concerns.

Surveys with questions specific to the goals of General Education are recommended in the assessment of student learning outcomes, particularly student perceptions and understanding of the natural sciences, social sciences, and the arts and humanities, and comparisons among native and transfer students. One such instrument used at CSULA is the Noel-Levitz: Student Satisfaction Inventory and Institutional Priorities Survey. This survey is designed to help identify areas of strengths of the institution, as well as areas needing improvement, and includes topics that are pertinent to the goals of GE.

Portfolio assessment can be used as a direct measurement of student learning outcomes. Currently, developmental English courses taught on campus use portfolio assessment to assess writing skills. It is recommended that this model be used in the assessment of GE written communication skills. Portfolios can also be used in the assessment of other areas of GE. In the upper division themes, faculty, using a rating rubric developed from the goals and objectives of GE, can evaluate a sampling of portfolios to assess the learning outcomes of the GE program.

Embedded questions are questions explicitly tailored to assess the GE program learning objectives embedded within course exams and assignments. One of the advantages of this method of outcomes assessment is that it is unobtrusive and integrated into the tasks in which faculty and students are already involved. The methods for administering and evaluating embedded questions should be developed and implemented in the Critical Thinking, Math Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning, American Institutions, and Upper-division Theme areas of the GE program.

Assessment for this area needs to be developed. Beyond SPCH 150, locations for assessment and assessment measures remain undetermined at this time. A rubric similar to those used in SPCH 150 is recommended for use as an overall assessment of Oral Communication in GE as well as the upper division theme or capstone courses.

Goal 3. Students understand basic mathematical concepts and apply quantitative reasoning.

IV. General Recommendations

In the preparation of this assessment plan and the development of these recommendations one further finding is evident and requires stating.

There are no two places in the current General Education program where the same students can easily be given two assessment vehicles, one at the beginning of the GE program to determine initial knowledge, and one at the end to determine what has been learned. 

One of the central difficulties in assessing the knowledge gained in the present General Education program is the multiplicity of choices available to students in many - indeed, almost all - of the General Education blocks. If there is to be a comprehensive General Education assessment effort with the use of a common examination or test of some kind, there are no easily available places where the same students (for a longitudinal study of the same students' growth over time) can be assessed at two points in time, ideally when they first enter Cal State LA, and then again at the completion of their degree. The Introduction to Higher Education courses can be used for native and transfer students, but the students in those classes are never together again.  After the class, they scatter to different majors, with courses taken over different periods of time.

B. General recommendations for improving the GE program.

During the two years of assessment plan development, the GE Assessment Faculty Working Group proposed the following recommendations, which GES endorse.C. Recommendations for additions and modifications to the GE program in general:

The first phase of GE assessment should commence in Fall Quarter, 2001

Fall 2001

• Academic Profile
• Pilot Study, Embedded Questions in Upper Division Themes