FINAL REPORT OF ASSESSMENT TASKFORCE
February 28, 2003
To: Senate Executive Committee
From: Faculty Senate Taskforce on Assessment of Basic Skills and General Education
Re: Final Report of the Taskforce
Members of the Taskforce:
Dwight Murphey, Business, chair
Stephen Brady, Mathematics
Percy Glasser, head of English composition
Nancy McKellar, Education, school psychology/education
Scott Miller, Engineering
Agreement with the "rudiments of an educated person" concept. The taskforce's proposal reflects a consensus that it will be highly desirable to institute "gateway" testing to determine students' suitability for going into upper division work. Here are some advantages:
(a) Such testing will do much to assure the quality of the University's graduates, providing an assessment at a critical time to assure that students entering upper division work and then going on to graduate are ones who have attained the basics needed "to be an educated person."
(b) The testing will impact beneficially upon the General Studies and Basic Skills academic programs themselves as, over time, they adjust to the expectations of the test. Institutions from which students transfer to Wichita State University will also, over time, make adjustments that will better prepare their students for work at the University.
[Because the testing will have so pervasive an impact, the taskforce sees the assessment as the linchpin of the entire reform of General Education at Wichita State University. For that reason, the taskforce implores the faculty and administration to devote themselves to the successful installation and implementation of the assessment program, a process that will take four years in its initial phase and continuous attention thereafter.]
The proposal:
1. Although it is not a matter of assessment, the taskforce adopted the following resolution to assure that Basic Skills courses are not left by students until they are about to graduate, which is often done now:
"Resolved: All Basic Skills requirements of the General Education program must be met by undergraduates enrolled in a Wichita State University bachelors or associate degree
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program within their completion of the first 48 credits toward the degree. Students who do not meet this requirement will be allowed to complete the Basic Skills requirement in the first Fall or Spring semester of enrollment subsequent to their having reached the 48 credit plateau. Students who transfer to the University with more than 48 credits earned from an accredited institution but who do not have the equivalent of Wichita State University's Basic Skills classes shall have two semesters of enrollment from their first enrollment to pass Basic Skills classes with the required C-or-better grade. Students who fail to pass Basic Skills classes in a timely fashion as defined above shall not be permitted further enrollment at the University except for enrollment in the Basic Skills classes."
[Both the English and Mathematics members of the taskforce observed that many students postpone some or all of their Basic Skills classes until the end of their college work. This delay defeats the purpose of students' possessing those skills for use in their upper division work, and accordingly weakens those courses.]
2. The University will adopt the CollegeBASE national general education examination as its assessment tool for Basic Skills and General Education.
[The taskforce eliminated the GRE from consideration because it is not a comprehensive test of students' acquaintance with a common body of knowledge. Detailed materials, including copies of the tests themselves, were reviewed relating to the three prominent national examinations used by American universities in assessing general education: the Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP); Academic Profile II; and the College Basic Academic Subjects Examination (CollegeBASE). The first of these, CAAP, was ruled out because it does not test substantively over humanities, social science, and natural science, asking only reading comprehension questions about them. Academic Profile was ruled out for the same reasons. The taskforce concluded that CollegeBASE comes closest to a comprehensive testing both of skills and rudimentary knowledge.
FACTS ABOUT CollegeBASE:
In its English component, it tests both reading and literature, with emphasis on major British and American authors. Three skills are tested in the English portion: reading critically, reading analytically, and understanding literature. An "essay prompt" allows testing students' ability to write.
Its mathematics component tests general mathematics (including statistics), algebra and geometry.
Its science component involves two clusters: scientific method
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(laboratory/field work) and fundamental scientific concepts.
Its social studies component tests history, geography, political science and economics.
The test involves 180 multiple choice questions in each of its four parts, and each part takes 45 minutes. The writing prompt requires another 40 minutes for the writing of the essay. 31% of the test is about mathematics, compared to 16% of CAAP and 25% of Academic Profile. The test is criterion-based rather than normed. More than 140 universities have used CollegeBASE since 1988 (and this is fewer than the other national examinations). The test is usually given after students finish their core curriculum (which is the taskforce's intention also). "User friendly" score reports are sent to each student and to the institution. The reports give both the "battery score" (the student's total score) and a score for each subtest. (The other tests report one or the other, but not both.) Scoring is by computerized scanner, with the exception that each essay is scored by two composition instructors. There is a new test form every year. The source of the test is the Assessment Resource Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Costs: A comparison of the three national examinations given to the taskforce for 2000 indicates that CollegeBASE was (at $10.24 per student) about 1/3rd less expensive than the others. The University will need to decide how the costs are paid. The taskforce believes that it is not unreasonable for each student to pay the examination fee.]
3. In the fall of Year 1 (the first year of implementation), WSU will use CollegeBASE to test samples of approximately 200 students in each of the following groups: incoming freshmen; those starting their junior year (defined as students who have completed between 48 and 60 hours) who have taken all their Basic Skills courses at WSU; and students about to graduate. Students who have taken some or all of their Basic Skills courses in high school as "concurrent enrollment" will not be included in the samples if they would constitute more than ten percent of the total sample in a category. Appropriate sampling to assure randomness will be the responsibility of the administrator.
[The scores on the Year 1 examinations will be used for program assessment; i.e., to determine the effectiveness of the University's Basic Skills courses and of the overall General Education Program. Three groups at different stages in their college careers are sampled so that there can be a before-and-after comparison to determine the effect of work at the University.]
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4. In the spring of the following year, Year 2, the University will use CollegeBASE to test a sample of approximately half of all the students who are "rising juniors" as previously defined (i.e., those having 48-60 hours).
[There are two reasons for this increase in the size of the sample: (a) to make the transition to the testing only of rising juniors; and (b) to begin acclimating the University community to the presence of a major testing program. The testing is moved to the spring because testing in the fall would occur after the students had already enrolled (which will be inconsistent with the eventual use, starting in Year 4, of the examination as a gateway for entrance into upper division work).]
5. In the spring of Year 3, the University will use CollegeBASE to test all rising juniors. The scores from Year 1 (for rising juniors), Year 2 and Year 3 will then be used to establish what a passing score should be once the exam becomes a gateway criterion for students' taking upper division courses.
[The increase of the testing in Year 3 to all rising juniors is to complete the process of acclimatizing, and to provide the more complete basis for establishing a cut-off score for a student's passing.]
6. In the spring of Year 4, the University will again administer the CollegeBASE examination to all rising juniors, and will begin using a passing score as an admission requirement for a student's being permitted to enroll in upper division courses.
[This provides for three years of preliminary foundation work before the "gateway" feature is introduced in the fourth year. That gives the University's own programs and the transfer institutions time to adjust their curricula as needed to prepare the students. Three years is certainly not too much time, and is arguably too little. The taskforce thought, however, that it is essential to implement the "gateway" feature as early as possible, knowing that the longer the process takes, the less likely it will ever come to fruition.]
This is subject to the following:
a. All transfer students, unless otherwise tested as rising juniors, will be tested as part of their admission process and before being permitted to enroll in upper division courses.
b. Individual colleges may exempt their students from the testing requirement for taking upper division courses if the college explicitly determines that its curriculum cannot be structured to accommodate its students' taking all of their general education courses as freshmen and sophomores. Students in these colleges will be tested in the final semester of their senior year, and for these students a passing score will be a graduation requirement.
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c. The University will not offer remedial classes for graduation credit.
7. The taskforce concluded that there is no cost-effective way to assess the individual competency of each student as to public speaking skills. It is sufficient, in the taskforce's opinion, to require that each student attain at least a C grade in a public speaking course, which must be either a course taken at this University or a course determined to be equivalent to a public speaking course here. (The current Basic Skills requirement is consistent with this, providing for at least a C in each Basic Skills course.) Unless the Speech program at the University has such an assessment in place now as part of its accreditation process or otherwise, the program itself will be expected to institute a process of periodic external assessment of its quality.
8. The taskforce does not feel it incumbent upon itself to determine what incentives students will be given to do their best on the tests that are given before the tests become a gateway for upper division courses. This is a serious concern that will need to be addressed by those administering the tests, since other universities have found that students often lack motivation to take the tests seriously.
9. The "charge" given to the taskforce specifies that the administration of the assessment program is to be in the hands of the General Education Coordinator. The taskforce believes that the University administration, with the advice of the Faculty Senate, should be free to place the administration of the tests in other hands if that is seen to be better.
10. The funding of the testing program is in the hands of the University administration. No doubt the program will require substantial funds to be administered properly.
Respectfully submitted,
Dwight Murphey