Table 5: History Program Assessment of Program Success

Institution: Saint Vincent College

Location: Latrobe, PA

Tuner: Tim Kelly

Year: 2014

This table tracks the department’s success for each of the goals over the four most recent years for which we have data. (We are still processing the data for the most recent academic year.) The scores suggest that we have been relatively successful across time, with a slight improvement over the four years. This improvement likely results from our greater attention to the goals and our determination to focus on them in our teaching and in the ways that we structure the courses. We made a deliberate effort to convert our scores into common academic conventions, so that we can determine readily how we are doing. Every department member is comfortable with the numeric score and the way that this score transfers into a “letter grade” for the year. Even the least quantitatively inclined among us can read and understand the score’s meaning for each goal in any individual year, and the overall scores for the year.

The faculty have been mostly compliant in using the rubrics and reporting data from them. A few faculty have neglected to retain records in any given year, but we are confident that the data trends are reliable and accurate.

Saint Vincent College Major Competencies 2009-10 2010-11 2011-2012 2012-13
1. Awareness of forces that shape societies and institutions in order to better understand a particular institution's or idea's rise or fall 88 93 97 86
2. Identify the particular forces most relevant to the development of an idea or institution, and trace the interaction of those forces through inception, development, transformation and decline 89 95 84 92
3. Relate historical forces to one's own growth
4. Understand a work of literature in relation to literary and cultural history. 78 86 86 92
5. Develop students' intellectual understanding of both the facts of historical events and their broader significance 82 93 90 93
6.Nurtuing students' skill in critical thinking. 85 86 93 86
7. Effective oral communication 90 89 90
8. Effective written communication 87 87 81 88
9. Students can more fully appreciate the complexity of human experience. 86 92 92 92
10. Develop the ability to weigh evidence and arguments that are essential for those who live in a rapidly changing world. 81 85 88 89
Overall Average 84.5 89.6 88.8 89.9
Letter Grade B B+ B+ A-