Appendix C9

Middle States Outcomes Assessment 1999

Department or Program: English

Goals

1. Develop historical understanding of different times and societies

2. Develop an understanding of literature's influence on literature and of the nature of originality.

3. Develop an understanding of the individuality and integrity of an author's world and language.

4. Develop an understanding of the individuality and integrity of different worlds, cultures and values.

5. Develop the ability to write for certain purposes with sensitivity to language and ethics/issues of its use.

6. Develop an understanding that different demands may be made of literature; develop an awareness of the problems caused by interpretation and judgment of literature.

7. Develop the ability to interrelate studies, to put the English curriculum into a perspective relative to their other studies and experiences. between English and other fields of study

Relationship to G.C.P.

1. Writing: Students write expository prose in virtually every class

2. Reading: Fundamental to the discipline. For all goals, students engage in identifying main points, grasp author's meaning and reasoning, assumptions, organization and style, placing reading in their own context.

3. Reflexive thinking: Emphasis on supporting individual interpretations of texts. For all goals, students become more aware of their own thinking and learning.

4. Socioethical understanding: Emphasis in classes on understanding diverse cultural values. Students will examine/expand their sense of humanity.

Means of Assessment

1. Enrollment and earned grades in specified courses selected to determine learning outcomes in the goals.

2. Required portfolios to specifically address departmental objectives #5 and #7 as well as the thought processes underlying the other departmental objectives.

3. Senior seminar

Outcomes

1. Target of at least 80% of majors earning grades of C+ or higher in specified courses was achieved.

2. Target of at least 80% of majors demonstrated writing, critical thinking, and metacognition ability and sense of interrelationship between disciplines in their portfolios.

Use

The department reports that its criteria for success have been achieved, but recommend some faculty emphasis adjustments, curricular changes and proposed improvements in the portfolio process. The Department's portfolio approach, for example, is judged effective in identifying subjectively percentage of graduates adequately meeting specific criteria in writing, critical thinking and metacognition, but, it will review and broaden its assessment criteria and add requirements to assess learning more directly.