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Assessment at Eastern

Eastern Connecticut State University’s assessment plan reflects its mission as Connecticut’s public liberal arts institution. Every year, the university works to build and assess its programs and curriculum to ensure students are prepared for work and life in the 21st century. Eastern’s mission, goals, and learning outcomes focus on skills that the university and external community value. As such, assessment of these learning outcomes serves several purposes:

  1. Identifying strengths and limitations of our institutions for purposed of targeted continuous improvement.
  2. Providing data to inform professional discussions about program curriculum and faculty development to improve learning inside the classroom.
  3. Ensuring the quality and integrity of an Eastern degree.
  4. Demonstrating accountability to our stakeholders.

Annual Assessment Cycle

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  • Eastern participates in a number of activities to evaluate the University's success in meeting its mission. This includes:

    • outcomes-based assessment, such as retention and graduation rates as part of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) survey
    • leading national surveys, such as the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which offers insights into students' experiences
    • Connecticut-based, and system-level initiatives, such as the Preschool through 20 and Workforce Information Network (P20-WIN), which brings together employment and wage information with degree data to further understand student outcomes

  • As Connecticut’s only public liberal arts institution, Eastern’s Liberal Arts Curriculum (LAC) is the centerpiece of our mission. The learning outcomes for the LAC drive instruction in our classrooms and provide students with the essential skills for employment and life in our increasing complex world. The learning outcomes that drive the curriculum are: Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Ethical Reasoning, and Quantitative Literacy. For further information on the learning outcomes, please see Senate Bill 19/20-07.

    Eastern is committed to ensuring that students are achieving these learning outcomes and has regular assessment of student artifacts to examine student achievement. Student artifacts are collected from LAC classes, de-identified, and distributed to a group of faculty assessors (the Assessment Task Force). Faculty assessors apply the rubrics detailed in Senate Bill 19 20_07 and the university assessment coordinator analyzes the results. The results are reported to multiple senate committees (such as the Liberal Arts Program Committee and the First Year Program Committee). These results inform programmatic changes to build on program strengths and target program weaknesses. For more details about the assessment process, please contact the university assessment coordinator, Courtney Broscious, brosciousc@easternct.edu.

    The learning outcomes are assessment on a three-year cycle. The calendar below displays the LAC learning outcome schedule for the next six years.    

    Calendar of Assessment 2021 - 2027

    Learning outcome

    21-22

    22-23

    23-24

    24-25

    25-26

    26-27

    Communication

    X

     

     

    X

     

     

    Creativity

     

     

    X

     

     

    X

    Critical Thinking

    X

     

     

    X

     

     

    Ethical Reasoning

     

    X

     

     

    X

     

    Quantitative Literacy

     

    X

     

     

    X

     

    Links

    LAC Assessment Plan

    Liberal Arts Program Committee (LAPC)

    First-Year Experience                            

    Senate Bill 19/20-07                        

  • All programs are required to participate in programmatic assessment. The University Assessment Committee works to provide assessment resources to programs to help them build strong learning outcomes, assessment plans, and assessment reports. These resources include webinars and workshops, planning documents, and templates. Below are links to resources for program assessment.

    Links

    University Senate Standing Committees

    Assessment Handbook

    Application for Funds                                   

  • Child and Family Development Resource Center
    Social Work Program
    Teacher Preparation Program

  • National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)

    Association of American Colleges and Universities (AACU)

    The Assessment Institute