General Education Core Competencies
ABOUT TEXAS CORE CURRICULUM ASSESSMENT
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board requires UTRGV to regularly assess the Core Curriculum and submit reports on schedule with the SACSCOC reaffirmation timeframe. Assessment of the Core must address key objectives in the various foundational component areas (e.g., Communication, Mathematics, Life and Physical Science, etc.). In particular, students must be assessed for their attainment of six Core Objectives (or skills) in critical thinking, communication, teamwork, social responsibility, personal responsibility, and empirical and quantitative skills.
OVERVIEW OF CORE CURRICULUM ASSESSMENT AT UTRGV
Assessment of learning outcomes will occur in
ROLE OF THE OFFICE OF ACCREDITATION AND ASSESSMENT
In partnership with the Associate Provost for Student Success, Dr. Jonikka Charlton, the OAIE staff support the assessment of Core Objectives by:
- Developing systems for the annual collection of course level core assessment plans.
- Identifying and training faculty on the
use technologies to collectstudent level data. - Aggregating
student level data on core objectives at the institutional, program and course level. - Providing consultation and workshops on the development of course level assessment plans.
EXPECTATIONS
Programs at UTRGV are expected to plan, measure, analyze, report results, and propose improvements on assessment of two Core Objectives each year (see chart below). The specific reporting timeline will be determined by the General Education Committee.
|
Core Objectives |
AY 2021-22 |
AY 2022-23 |
AY 2023-24 |
AY 2024-25 |
AY 2025-26 |
AY 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Critical Thinking | X | X | ||||
| Communication Skills | X | X | ||||
| Empirical & Quantitative Skills | X | X | ||||
| Teamwork | X | X | ||||
| Social Responsibility | X | X | ||||
| Personal Responsibility | X | X |
GUIDELINES
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Planning
Programs should identify all approved core courses that are offered during the upcoming fall semester and submit two assessment plans - one for each of the two Core Objectives assessed that year. These assessment plans should detail the type of assignment that will be used to assess learning of the targeted Core Objectives. Although programs can take varying approaches to
assessing Core Objectives, they must use the institutionally approved rubrics to evaluate student performance. Programs should specify standards that students are expected to achieve in the value rubric. Equally important to note, is that programs should clearly explain when and how assessment activities will take place. The best way to ensure consistency within a program (or beyond) is to have a common assignment (or question stem, etc.) or to create a series of common requirements or criteria for an assignment which all faculty agrees to follow. Effective fall 2017, core coordinators will submit their assessment plan details to the Office of the Associate Provost for Student Success. For information on submitting your assessment plans, please contact the Office of Student Success. -
Measuring
Programs are encouraged to measure student performance on the core objectives in both the fall and spring semesters; however, one semester of data collection is considered sufficient. Although programs have discretion over the timing and frequency of the data collection process, they should measure each Core Objective at least once, but more if appropriate. For example, programs are free to measure students’ attainment of skills at the beginning and end of a semester to implement their pre- and post-test designs and observe any changes in students’ behavior. Prior to fall 2017, select programs have used Blackboard learn to create assessments to be evaluated using a juried evaluation system in the Blackboard Outcomes environment. Although the OAIE will continue to support the use of Blackboard Outcomes evaluation, programs will be encouraged to transition their assessment process to the institution’s new assessment management system, Tk20. Tk20 implemented fall 2017 and allows for juried evaluation of common or signature assignments collected across multiple sections of core courses.
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Reporting Results and Proposing Improvements
Data collection will be initiated by the GEC, facilitated by the OAIE, and carried out by the academic programs. Academic programs will take the lead on data analysis and timely feedback to program faculty regarding student learning outcomes on a course by course level. All data and samples will also be provided to the OAIE for compilation and analysis at the University level. Factors to be considered in the analysis may include, but are not limited to: the number of courses that a student took that align to the particular outcome being measured, the student’s prior academic performance (high school ranking, SAT/ACT score, etc.), the student’s major, and the number of related core curriculum courses that the student completed at UTPA/UTB-TSC/UTRGV. Following analysis of the assessment results, the GEC will review all assessment results relevant to each outcome and provide feedback to programs participating in core assessment that year. In areas in which student performance is below expectations, they will work with faculty from participating programs and College or University administrators (if indicated) to develop an improvement plan for that outcome area. The GEC will also provide an annual report on the activities of the committee, including the assessment results and plans developed during the year, to the College Deans and Deputy Provost.
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Implementing Changes and Reporting Impact
Programs should act on their prescribed improvement plan and report on improvements as specified by the GEC.
RESOURCES
For more resources on assessing the Texas Core Curriculum please visit our Resources page.