Outcome Assessment of General Education 21st Century Competency Skills: Close the Loop Efforts in the United States

Nhung Thi Tuyet Pham

doi:10.52296/vje.2021.45

Abstract

Over the past several years, various stakeholders have continued to express concerns about the quality of U.S. higher education. Under the accountability and transparency pressures, institutions must provide evidence of student learning, especially the value of general education programs upon graduation. Therefore, a case study at a U.S. comprehensive university was conducted to assess five general education competency skills (written, oral, quantitative literacy, critical thinking and information literacy). To facilitate “close the loop” conversations with faculty and committees, in addition to descriptive analysis, the university disaggregated the assessment data in a non-traditional way by examining the relationship of student factors (race, year and college) and student learning. The researcher used ANCOVA and ANOVA to identify significant differences. Results indicated year and race were related to student outcomes, except for critical thinking skills. The researcher provided suggestions for use of the study’s findings to close the loop in the general education program.

Highlights

Over the past several years, various individuals, organizations, and legislators have continued to express concerns about the quality of higher education in the United States
Based on the findings of previous research studies’ efforts to learn more about student learning in General Education (GE) competencies, the university decided to examine the relationships of student factors with the five competencies
The research results indicated that seniors scored higher than freshmen in written, oral communication competencies and quantitative literacy when controlling and not controlling GPA

Summary

Introduction

Over the past several years, various individuals, organizations, and legislators have continued to express concerns about the quality of higher education in the United States. Those concerns have triggered legislation and requirements at the federal and state levels and by regional accreditors to assess and report on student learning (Jones, 2009; Nelson, 2014; Bassis, 2015). In 2005, the Spelling Commission report suggested that institutions be required to provide evidence of student learning outcomes (SLOs) for accountability (U.S Department of Education, 2006). There have been numerous studies on assessment methods to demonstrate evidence of student performance on 21st century competencies skills. Most of the four assessment approaches use data from standardized exam to provide evidence of students’ 21st century competency skills

Methods

Results

Conclusion