SUNY Orange General Education Assessment Plan - Cycle 2 Competency: Basic Communication Written* Year: AY 2006/2007 SUNY Student Learning Outcome(s): Produce coherent texts within common college-level written forms* Demonstrate the ability to revise and improve such texts* Cycle 1 Assessment Upon completion of the first Written Communication assessment, a report was produced that described the assessment instrument, outlined the methods, and analyzed the results. This report was disseminated to English Department faculty, the General Education Committee, and college administration. A presentation of the results was also prepared for the English Department. At this and subsequent faculty meetings, the findings were discussed and improvement strategies developed. Several strategies that have been implemented include an increased collaborative effort to address improving student�s ability and use of revisions to their written work; continued norming sessions to maintain inter-rater reliability; increased creation of �paired courses� as part of the Writing Consultancy Project which provides additional and program specific writing opportunities for students, including developmental students; designed adjunct specific workshops, trained high school teachers on writing standards and rubric development and application as part of the Community College in the High Schools program. Course(s) 11101 Freshman English I Sampling Information During Fall 2006, a random selection of Freshman English I course sections will be selected to participate in the Strengthened Campus Based Assessment (SCBA). At least 20% of the total students enrolled in Freshman English I will be included in the assessment. Assessment Methods & Externally Referenced Measures The Assessment Instrument & Methods: During the Fall 2006 semester, students will be asked to write an argumentative essay incorporating reference material. The first draft of the essay will be completed as an in-class writing assignment during the final class; the essay will be revised during the final exam period. Students will be instructed to document all references used. The writing assignment assessment will follow several parameters: * Student will receive two references on a controversial topic; a third reference relevant to the topic will be located by the student. * A draft essay will be written during the final class using and documenting the three references. Students will hand-in the draft essay. * During the final exam, students will revise their first draft. Both the draft and the final essay will be handed in at the end of the final exam period. * Students will be instructed to use MLA style to document the three references. A Works Cited page will be handed in at the end of the final exam. Externally Referenced Measures: SUNY�s Written Communication Standards and Scoring Rubric: The student essays will be scored using the Standards and Scoring Rubric developed by the SUNY Written Communication Discipline Panel. The use of this rubric ensures that the measures are externally referenced. The first reader/rater of the student essays will be the students� instructor. They will score the essay using the Standards and Scoring Rubric. After the essays initial reading/rating, copies will be made, coded, and anonymity ensured by removing identifying information of the student and instructor. During the Spring 2007 semester, 20% of the essays will be randomly selected to be scored by a second reader/rater using the Standards and Scoring Rubric developed by SUNY. The scores will be aggregated and results determined. Student Participants Students participating in the assessment will be asked to provide self-reported demographic information. Information to be collected may include, full-time vs. part-time enrollment status, developmental course history, major, utilization of campus writing center, etc. This information will help the department and the college use the assessment results more effectively for program improvement initiatives as well as initiatives to increase student engagement. Reliability In order to demonstrate consistency in scoring the assessments, two readers/raters will score each assessment included in the 20% random sample with the first reader/rater being the course instructor. Inter-rater reliability: To ensure inter-rater reliability, the faculty will conduct norming sessions prior to the administration of the assessment. Norming sessions will result in faculty agreement of the scoring definitions at least 90% of the time. Ongoing norming sessions will be held to ensure consistency in the scoring of student performance. If discrepancies occur in the scoring, a third faculty reader/rater will score the student work. (The English Department requests compensation information from SUNY for both the norming process as well as for the second reader/rater for the 20% random sample.) Validity The English Department faculty will develop and review the assessment instrument for its validity to ensure that it will accurately assess each of the two student learning outcomes. The expertise of the faculty yields sufficient face validity for assessment purposes. Criteria The standard that defines what level of student performance the faculty considers as �exceeding, meeting, approaching, and not meeting� is outlined in the Scoring Guide developed by the SUNY discipline panel on Written Communication. Criteria SLO 1 SLO 2 Percentage (%) Percentage (%) "Exceeding" "Meeting" "Approaching" "Not Meeting" Results & Dissemination After the assessment has been completed and the results analyzed, a report will be created to document the instrument, methods, and findings. This report will be shared with English Department faculty, the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Assessment Advisory Committee, other relevant governance committees, and college administration. Students will also be informed of the results; however, creative and effective methods will need to be determined. The findings of the assessment will be regularly discussed in faculty forums such as Department and Committee meetings. These discussions will focus on program improvement. The assessment results will also be used in the continued awareness of and promotion for �writing across the curriculum� initiatives. Additionally, the results will be used in addressing ESL and developmental course related issues. Additionally, a review of this assessment process will be conducted and facilitated by the Assessment Coordinator and supported by the Assessment Advisory Committee in order to identify areas of improvement for future assessments. *Indicates Strengthened Campus Based Assessment This plan was developed and approved by a task force of faculty members from the English Department as well as with the assistance and support of the Assessment Coordinator, General Education Committee, and the English Department.