Academic Assessment
Academic Program Assessment Process
John Jay College's academic assessment process is designed to help programs collect systematic evidence of student achievement of learning goals and to use the results of this process to improve student learning.
Assessment Activities
Academic programs engage in an annual process to identify and examine ways to improve the overall student experience by assessing support outcomes and/or student learning outcomes. The academic assessment process at John Jay is internally driven and designed to:
- be meaningful and manageable;
- be transparent;
- lead to data-driven decision-making;
- maximize the effective use of institutional resources;
- ensure continuous improvement; and
- be relevant to the discipline.
Assessment is cyclical and activities reoccur to ensure data is used for continuous and sustained improvement of student learning. It also illustrates that in connection with the unit mission and goals, there are six critical activities units will undertake in the assessment process:
- Identify expected student learning outcomes for each goal;
- Identify assessment measures for each outcome;
- Collect and organize data;
- Analyze and interpret data, and identify recommended actions;
- Develop and execute an action plan; and
- Use results to make improvements (“closing the loop").
These specific activities unify assessment practices across units of the college and establish standards for engaging in continuous improvement.
Assessment in Action
The academic assessment cycle is governed by an annual timeline that requires academic programs to engage in assessment of student learning throughout every year. Templates and other resources are available to academic programs to assist them in completing assessment activities.
- The 5-Year Assessment Plan template assists programs in drafting short-term and long-term plans based on their program-level student learning outcomes.
- Each year, programs are required to assess a minimum of one student learning outcome using a direct measure of assessment.
- The Annual Assessment Report, due July 1st of each year requires programs to communicate information about assessment activities completed for the previous academic year.
- Programs describe in detail outcomes assessed, measures used to collect data, targets for student success, and how data was analyzed and interpreted. They also explain how actionable data was or will be used to create action plans and make improvements.
- The report provides programs with the opportunity to discuss factors that may have impeded or accelerated assessment efforts, celebrate assessment accomplishments and concisely communicate outcomes for the next academic year.
The Academic Assessment Committee (AAC) uses information in plans and reports to document and provide feedback to academic programs. After assessment plans have been reviewed and feedback has been provided by AAC, units implement their plans. Feedback provided helps to make sure assessment activities are executable and actionable and that data from the previous year’s Annual Assessment Findings Report is used to inform decision making.
Contact Us
Dyanna Pooley
Director of Outcomes Assessment
Phone: 646-781-5223
Email: dpooley@jjay.cuny.edu