ACADEMIC PROGRAM ASSESSMENT 

Academic program assessment is a form of research used to identify the knowledge and skills that students should possess upon completion of a degree or certification program; measure the extent to which students demonstrate the intended knowledge or skills; and use the information to identify strategies to improve student learning.  

Assessment provides the answers to these questions:  

• What should program graduates know and what can they do?  
• What have they demonstrated that they know and can do?  

• What programmatic changes are necessary to support continuous improvement in the knowledge and skills of program graduates?  
• What assessment changes are necessary to capture the best possible information about student learning in order to support continuous improvement in the knowledge and skills of program graduates?  

Academic program assessment is a structured and iterative process in which qualified faculty:  

• identify the specific knowledge and skills program graduates should possess;  

• identify specific methods for measuring the knowledge and skills;  
• collect data on students’ performance on the desired knowledge and skills;  
• interpret the results of the data collected;  
• use those results to drive curricular decision-making intended to improve student learning; 
• refine assessment processes in order to capture the best possible information about student learning;  

• engage in budget and planning processes that are directly supported by data on student learning and aimed at future initiatives that target the continuous improvement of student learning; and  
• repeat the process to monitor the effectiveness of curricular or assessment changes and to identify additional changes.  

Academic program assessment should not be thought of as a periodic activity with a finite beginning and end. It is a continuous and ongoing process; each cycle provides information about the degree of success from the previous cycle, and informs decisions and activities in the subsequent cycle. 

To the right, you will find downloadable pdf versions of the assessment manual, the assessment planning template, and the assessment reporting template.