GENERAL EDUCATION PLANNING TEAM
A PRELIMINARY REPORT

Core Indicator 45 Employer Assessment
Core Indicator #7 Performance After Transfer

What We Know

• There are two surveys - one from employer's perceptions of the general education of students from COD and one from student's perceptions of how well general education at COD prepared them for transfer or work -- being analyzed by the Research Office at this time. (General Education Team)

• Math and Science Reasoning Skills are making strong progress compared to national norms (1999 CAAP report).

• Writing Skills, Essay Writing, and Critical Thinking Skills show development near the national norms (1999 CAAP report).

• College Reading Skills - Sophomores show skills lower than national norms, while freshman scores were slightly higher (1999 CAAP report).

• One hundred and thirty-eight randomly selected student's essays from all Sociology courses were evaluated on four criteria: 67% of the students demonstrated a Sociological perspective; 54% used vocabulary and concepts appropriately; 35% used Sociological theory in identifying and analyzing relationships; and 6 1 % applied Sociological ideas, concepts, and vocabulary appropriately and accurately. The full and part-time faculty are reviewing these results for possible future instructional activities.

• At the Social Behavioral Science meeting on Friday, the faculty reported that, typically at COD, transfer students did not read original sources and that students thought it would be helpful.

• 98% of the responders to the COD survey of 1997 graduates felt at least adequately prepared for what they were doing; 54% felt very well prepared.

• Sixteen transfer students at North Central *in two focus groups, conducted by the Transfer Team, reported that most students thought their academic preparation at COD was very good, a great value, and equivalent or better than at a 4 year college.

  • While some students had done a lot of writing at COD, they agreed that the amount of writing varied more by instructor than by type of class at COD. The length and complexity of term papers were about the same at both colleges.

  • They found that there was a lot more reading at North Central.

  • While critical thinking skills were a component in some classes at COD, some students wished that their critical thinking skills had been better prepared.

  • Students who had used the Computer Labs were very pleased with the facilities at COD and were well prepared.

  • Student felt less well prepared to work in groups and to speak in front of the class.

• COOP students demonstrated improvement to their employers in the areas of communication skills, problem solving skills, selfmanagement, teamwork, initiative and technical skills at the end of their COOP experience (COOP office).

• There are statistically significant relationships between increased class study time and cumulative GPA which indicates that student efforts do result in improved classroom performance... It is interesting to note that in several simpler regression models the covariance of study time and general education skill is a negative one. Indicating that students with a higher level of general education skills spend less time studying - probably because they are better at learning more for the time they spend. These observations make a strong case for both encouraging students to develop better general education skills and a direct reward (less study) for doing so. (From the draft of "Assessment Report on Students' General Education Development at College of DuPage," p. 13).

Data Gaps and Associated Possible Measures Being Assessed

• How does the high school experience of our students, as measured by the IGAP or ISAT testing, ACT/SAT scores, or class rankings, prepare students for our placement tests and for our classrooms? Are we communicating with tile high schools in the general education areas? Ought this type of information be collected from incoming students?

• What kinds of problems - academic, social, career, family -- are our students experiencing as they transfer to 4 year colleges and universities? (The North Central College focus group answered some of this and the Northern Illinois University focus group ought to give us more information)

• Despite adequate sampling methods, how does the diversity of our students -- 9 of courses actually taken and their grades; the life experiences of our non-native students and of our students who are the Is' generation in their family to attend college; age; prior degrees/certificates; work history - affect the information we have about our students?

A fundamental challenge in conducting higher education research is controlling for the wide variation among entering students' backgrounds, previous learning, and selection based on ability and interests. Students bring these characteristics to college which both give options and limit opportunities. (From the draft of "Assessment Report on Students' General Education Development at College of DuPage,"'p. 13).