SAS Office of Undergraduate Education

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SAS Department & Program Assessment

SAS Department and Program Assessment

The School of Arts and Sciences uses assessment as an important tool in maintaining excellence in undergraduate education. SAS emphasizes sustainable, efficient, and authentic assessments that provide valid practical information for decision-making about how to improve student learning outcomes in both general education and in majors and minors, and in promoting a culture of continuous improvement based on evidence in our administrative support for students and faculty.

The SAS faculty Assessment Committee, along with the SAS Dean's office, oversees department based assessment of learning goals for specific majors and minors. Guidance in developing assessment plans is available in document Developing a Program Assessment Plan .

The SAS departments' programmatic learning goals are available on SAS and department web pages and in the official catalog. Departments submit annual assessment reports on or before June 15^th of every year that include:

the learning goals for their major(s) and/or minor(s)
the strategy or site for student achievement of these learning goal(s)
a description of least one direct measure of student learning outcomes, and the benchmarks for these; a summary of the results of the assessment(s); and
planned or implemented changes in light of the results, as well as a projected timeline for the follow-up re-assessment of student outcomes on the goal(s).