Current Assessment Materials (after 2005)

Executive Summary
English Department Assessment Committee: Renee Barstack, Kim Ferrell, Karen Schwalm
September, 2005

The English Department mission is to provide courses for students so that they may:

• Prepare for success in a bachelor's English degree program (in literature or writing) at a transfer institution;

• Fulfill the writing requirements for a two-year degree program;

• Prepare for college level writing through the composition of effective paragraphs and essays; and

• Comprehend written and spoken English at a functional level.

The English Department began its assessment program in 1989; it has expanded and developed over the past fifteen years so that it now covers all courses and includes both full-and part-time instructors. All materials and reports are on the department web site, and we update them each semester.

The department’s assessment program has several parts:

• Assessment Day
  Faculty attend this all day event during the week of accountability each semester; faculty score essays, develop or revise department-wide rubrics, and establish goals for the following semester.

• Faculty also review the report from the previous semester of both overall grades and specific sub-set scores aligned with course competencies.

• Rubric Development and Use in ENG 071, ENG101 and ENG102
  Faculty revise and discuss the use of a specific rubric for grading one written assignment each semester.

This program focuses primarily on English 101 and 102, although faculty teaching English 071 and 061 have adopted the same process on a smaller scale.

During Fall semester, 2005, the department focused on “closing the loop” on assessment results; we will continue this emphasis during the assessment meetings in Spring, 2006 and Fall, 2006 by developing strategies that help faculty use sub-set scores to improve instruction.

Faculty teaching other courses offered by the English Department employ various means of assessment. These courses are in the following prefixes:

History of Assessment in the GCC English Department In 1989, under the direction of Conrad Bayley, English department chair, an Assessment Committee submitted a report which included a proposal for a three year Pilot Assessment Program to assess the outcomes in English 101 for the purpose of improving instruction.  The initial purpose of the pilot assessment was "to improve instruction in English 101 by helping faculty articulate to each other (and by extension, to students) what they mean by good writing." In the spring of 1992, the Assessment Committee presented an updated report to the English Department regarding the three year Pilot Assessment Program.  They recommend, among other things, that an assessment program in the department continue.