Assessment and Student Outcomes

Assessment is a college-wide endeavor involving faculty, administrators, and staff.  Those who have direct contact with students bear the greatest responsibility for organizing, implementing, and sustaining a systematic assessment program. Monroe maintains a culture of continuous assessment to positively impact learning outcomes and the effectiveness of administrative units. 

The office of Institutional Planning, Effectiveness, and Budget (IPEB) is charged with the management of assessment activities across the College, providing leadership and expertise in the development and implementation of a comprehensive system for assessing effectiveness across the institution:

• Building and facilitating a culture of evidence, assessment, and continuous quality improvement across the institution 
• Directing and ensuring the integrity of data collection, maintenance, analysis, and dissemination 

Monroe’s process for ensuring institutional effectiveness is an on-going, college-wide practice of planning and outcomes assessment. It consists of collection, organization, analysis, and dissemination of data for use in strategic planning. This process applies to both institutional and key departmental units that support student learning, enabling the College to better understand the extent to which it is fulfilling its mission and achieving its goals. 

Effectiveness indicators have been established for the following areas: 

• Academic Affairs
• Academic Support Services
• Admissions
• Career Services
• Human Resources
• Institutional Planning, Effectiveness, and Budget
• Public Safety, Facilities, and Transportation
• Technology
• Student Financial Services and Loan Management
• Student Services

The College’s process for academic assessment is an ongoing commitment to advance student learning.  Data collected are aggregated and combined with information from Career Services, the Registrar, Institutional Research, Student Affairs, and other departments college-wide for the distinct purpose of helping to assess how well we are fulfilling our mission and core values.  Assessment of student learning outcomes is comprehensive in nature and occurs at the course and program levels.  

The Academic Assessment Committee, a body that includes deans, directors, and faculty (plus academic administrators who serve on a rotating basis) is charged with supporting and carrying out the College’s commitment of continuous assessment.  To that end, the committee establishes the strategic direction for assessment on the course level in support of the individual programs’ overarching goals and objectives.   

• Graduation Rates

• Retention Rates

• Graduate Outcomes

• Licensure Outcomes

In the 2013-2014 academic year, the College established the Communication, Language and Information Literacy Committee (CLIC), the purpose of which was initially to develop core literacies with a focus on oral and written communication and information literacy. The focus was subsequently expanded to include quantitative literacy and undergraduate and graduate level research. One of the primary results of this initiative was the development of Institution-wide Learning Outcomes (ILOs) that articulate core competencies in the general education curriculum and in support of the major-area learning outcomes. The ILOs were approved in 2017 and piloted during the 2017-2018 academic year.  During the pilot year, the CLIC worked with academic deans, directors, and faculty in all the academic programs and general education to implement the ILOs and create a framework for their assessment.

The ILOs span all majors and degree levels. The intent is to ensure that all students have the opportunity through their course of study to develop and demonstrate key competencies that are valued by educators and employers regardless of the specific discipline. The first ILO is related to the students’ field of study, while the other four are connected to general education.

Institutional Learning Outcome Statements