Assessment Method

Near the end of the Fall 2011 semester, classes at each level of the ESL sequence (except ESL 184RW) were given reading and writing tests designed by faculty to test students' achievement of the reading and writing SLOs for each course in the sequence.  Instructors met to read and evaluate the papers of all students in the program.  The same process, described below, has been used in subsequent semesters.

In the case of the writing tests, each student's paper is read by at least two ESL faculty members.  When the first two readers do not agree about whether or not the student has achieved the SLOs (an acceptable/passing level of work), a third faculty reader is asked to read the paper and cast a deciding vote.

Because it is quite burdensome for each student's paper to be read by multiple faculty readers, we considered using the same process, but jointly evaluating a sampling of student papers from each class rather than every paper from every class.   This idea was rejected in a joint faculty meeting in August 2012, based on the principle that each student's work should be evaluated. 

This testing process was repeated in Spring 2012 for the ESL 183RW and 184RW levels and in Fall 2012 for the 181RW and 182RW levels.  It was determined in a faculty meeting that the lower levels would be tested in the fall semesters and the upper levels in the spring semesters. 

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