Queensborough Community College/CUNY!
Department of Social Sciences
Individual Course Assessment Report
Date Submitted: July 29, 2014
Course Assessed: SOCY101 (Introduction to Sociology)
Course Description: In this course students become familiar with key concepts that sociologists
use to study the social world. Students learn to use these concepts to understand the challenges
and problems facing their own society and their own role in social reproduction and social
change. Students learn to identify and analyze dynamics of human society with special emphasis
on application of scientific methods of observation and analysis of social groups, intergroup
relations, social change, social stratification, and social institutions.
General Education Objectives (GEO) Assessed Learning Objectives and Outcomes:
QCC General Educational Objectives
Students will use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in
order to make informed decisions.
Students will integrate knowledge and skills in their program of study.
Students will use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human
behavior, social institutions, or social processes.
Pathways Common Core Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) Assessed:
PATHWAYS LEARNING OUTCOMES II .D. INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY
Students will learn to gather, interpret, and assess information from a variety of sources and
points of view.
Students will learn to evaluate evidence and arguments critically and analytically.
Students will learn to produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support
conclusions.
Students will learn to identify and apply the fundamental concepts and methods of a field
exploring the relationship between the individual and society.
Students will learn to examine how an individual's place in society affects experiences, values, or
choices.
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Students will learn to identify and engage with local, national, or global trends or ideologies, and
analyze their impact on individual or collective decision-making.
Individual Course Objectives
Upon completion of an introductory Sociology class, students will be expected to be able to:
• demonstrate familiarity with classical and/or contemporary social theory;
• demonstrate an understanding about how social structure affects individual life chances;
• identify and apply major paradigms of sociological analysis;
• describe the principles of social research methodologies;
• identify significant sub-discipline areas of study including, but not limited to the topics
covered by social institutions and social inequality;
• apply “the sociological imagination” to contemporary social phenomena and social
problems;
• explain the processes of socialization and adult re-socialization; and
• discuss the concepts of normative and deviant behaviors.
• students are also expected to develop writing skills and critical thinking skills appropriate
for study at the college level.
Participants:
No. Sections Assessed: 8
No. Students Assessed: 302
Course Assessment Method and Tools: Toward the end of the spring 2014 semester, eight
sections of SOCY101, with a total of 302 students, completed the assessment task. This task was
based on a concept developed by the assessment committee of the Social Sciences Department,
which has chosen to assess the critical thinking skills of students across all of the social sciences
disciplines based on their reading of disciplinary-specific texts. The sociology faculty selected a
short excerpt from a qualitative field study of low-income unmarried teen mothers in
Philadelphia. The excerpt was taken from the book Promises I Can Keep, by the sociologists
Edin and Kefalis (see appendix 1). We chose this text because we thought that the topic would be
of interest to students, and because it called on them to utilize and identify key concepts and
skills from SOCY101 including: the sociological imagination, norms and values, social class,
qualitative sociological methods, and the relationship between social structure and individual
outcomes.
In addition to addressing the above General Education Objectives for Sociology, this text can be utilized
to evaluate disciplinary-specific questions, which align with the categories outlined on the standard
critical reading rubric by Amanda Deal and Melissa Rareshide of Winston-Salem State University in
their Critical Reading Manual. This rubric sets forth four categories for evaluating students’ critical
reading abilities: Constructing Meaning; Contextualizing; Using Other Perspectives and Positions;
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Evaluating Evidence and Drawing Conclusions (see appendix 2). We designed four multiple-choice
questions for each category on the rubric (see appendix 3). As discussed by the assessment committee,
successfully answering all four questions will count as Mastery of the criteria. Three correct questions
will be assessed as Strong Development. Two correct questions will be interpreted as Weak
Development. Zero or one correct question will be considered Emerging within the given category on
the rubric.
Course Assessment Results:
Summary: Out of eight sections (302 students), students answered 72% of questions correctly. In
Cluster 1 (Constructing Meaning), students answered 63% of questions correctly. In cluster 2
(Contextualizing), students answered 87% of the questions correctly. In cluster 3 (Using Other
Perspectives and Positions), students answered 69.7% of the questions correctly. In cluster 4
(Evaluating Evidence and Drawing Conclusions), students answered 68.7% of the questions
correctly.
Question #
1
2
3
4
1-4 (C1)
5
6
7
8
5-8 (C2)
9
10
11
12
9-12 (C3)
13
14
15
16
13-16 (C4)
% Correct (N)
63.9 (193)
83.1 (251)
44.0 (133)
60.9 (184)
63.0 (761)
90.4 (273)
82.1 (248)
81.1 (245)
94.4 (285)
87.0 (1051)
58.3 (176)
65.9 (199)
80.5 (243)
74.2 (224)
69.7 (842)
67.9 (205)
58.3 (176)
68.2 (206)
80.5 (243)
68.7 (830)
Total
72.1 (3484)
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Criteria
Constructing
Meaning
(Q# 1-4)
Contextualizing
(Q# 5-8)
Using Other
Perspectives
and Positions
(Q# 9-12)
Evaluating
Evidence and
Drawing
Conclusions
(Q# 13-16)
Total
Emerging
Weak
Strong
Mastery
Development Development
X
Average
63.0 (761)
87.0 (1051)
X
X
69.7 (842)
X
68.7 (830)
X
72.1 (3484)
As can be seen in the table above, students evidenced either Mastery or Strong Development in
all of the four categories. Their responses were especially strong in the category of
contextualizing (C2), where 94% of students answered question 8 correctly. Of the remaining
three categories, student response was the weakest in the first category, Constructing Meaning,
especially in their response to question 3, for which only 44% of students answered correctly.
Scores were also low on question 9 (58%) in category 3 (Using Other Perspectives and
Positions) and question 14 (58%) in Category 4 (Evaluating Evidence and Drawing
Conclusions).
Conclusions: Overall, students performed well on this assessment task, indicating that, at least
according to the standards of measurement agreed upon by Sociology faculty, we are achieving
the critical thinking objective(s).
Although participating faculty offered different incentives to students to complete the task (some
of us, for example, offered varying quantities of extra credit points) and administered the task in
slightly different ways (i.e., some of us gave out the reading a week or two in advance; some did
not) we achieved similar results.
What does stand out, within the clusters, are one or two questions for which students were
especially likely to offer incorrect responses. For example, as stated above, only 44% of students
answered question three correctly, while, in general, students exhibited strong development in
this category. This gap suggests that the question may have been ambiguously worded or in some
other way confusing to students, despite their overall grasp of the learning objectives.
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Action Plan: Moving forward, those sociology faculty involved in developing and coordinating
disciplinary assessment will want to work to refine the wording and question choices used on the
assessment tool in order to provide more consistent responses within clusters. We will
undoubtedly need to administer the assessment several more times before we are able to arrive at
an optimal set of questions, as there is no way of determining for sure which questions will
stump students until after the test is administered.
We also may want to have further discussion, among participating faculty, about assessment
protocol. While it doesn’t appear that the slight variation in strategy had an impact on outcomes,
we may want to experiment with more consistency. For example, we may want to agree on when
in the semester we distribute the reading and whether we want students to have access to the
reading while they are completing the task.
We may also wish to experiment with different readings in the longer-term future. However, for
the next several rounds of assessment, we suggest sticking to this reading and working to refine
the questions.
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Appendix
1. Critical Reading Rubric
0-1 = emerging; 2 = weak development; 3 = strong development; and 4 = mastery
Rating Criteria
Emerging
Weak Development Strong Development
0-1
2
3
Constructing Meaning
Contextualizing
Derives meaning
from texts in a
confused or
inaccurate way
Reads written
language in
isolation or
connects it to
irrelevant or
inaccurately
understood
contexts
Using Other Perspectives and Takes text at face
Positions
value, showing
minimal awareness
of perspectives,
assumptions,
purposes, and
techniques
Evaluating Evidence and Conclusions are
Drawing Conclusions
inconsistently
tied to some of
the information;
related outcomes
(consequences &
implications) are
oversimplified
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Mastery
4
Derives meaning
from texts in a limited
fashion, makes sense
of written words but
no further analysis
Usually derives
Always derives
accurate meaning from accurate meaning
texts by making sense from texts by making
of written words and
sense of written words
analyzing reading with and analyzing reading
respect to prior
with respect to prior
knowledge, research
knowledge, research
and experience
and experience
Makes connections in Usually connects
Always connects
a limited fashion
written language with written language with
between written
contexts such as prior contexts such as prior
language and contexts experience, historical experience, historical
setting, physical
setting, physical
setting, knowledge of setting, knowledge of
the discipline, etc.
the discipline, etc.
Attempts to explore
perspectives,
assumptions,
purposes, and
techniques
exemplified or
implied by the text
Draws conclusions
that are logically tied
to information
(because information
is chosen to fit the
desired conclusion),
some related
outcomes
(consequences and
implications) are
identified clearly.
Usually explores
Always explores
perspectives,
perspectives,
assumptions,
assumptions,
purposes, and
purposes, and
techniques
techniques
exemplified or
exemplified or
implied by the text
implied by the text
Draws conclusions that Draws conclusions
are logically tied to a and related outcomes
range of information, (consequences and
including opposing
implications) that are
viewpoints; related
logical and reflect
outcomes
student’s informed
(consequences and
evaluation and ability
implications) are
to place evidence and
identified clearly
perspective discussed
in priority order.
2. Assessment Questions
1. According to the authors, many poor unmarried mothers view ______ as a “tragedy.”
a. marriage
b. childlessness
c. poverty
d. unemployment
2. According to the authors, what does motherhood mean to poor unmarried women?
a. Motherhood was an accident that they regret.
b. Motherhood gives their lives purpose.
c. Motherhood makes them feel like failures.
d. Motherhood is the cause of the problems in their lives.
3. At the time of their child’s birth, most poor unmarried mothers:
a. are involved with their child’s father.
b. do not know their child’s father.
c. are no longer involved with their child’s father.
d. all of the above.
4. According to the authors, why do poor unmarried parents experience the birth of their child as
a “magic moment”?
a. Because children are born vulnerable and needy.
b. Because it often bonds the child’s parents for a short time.
c. Because they don’t understand how babies are made.
d. none of the above
5. Which of the following statements is true?
a. There are more unmarried mothers in the United States today than in the past.
b. There are fewer unmarried mothers in the United States today than in the past.
c. The number of unmarried mothers in the United States today is the same as it was in the
past.
d. none of the above
6. According to the authors, before their pregnancy, poor women often live in situations defined
by:
a. depression and despair.
b. struggles with parents and peers.
c. school failure.
d. all of the above
7. The authors try to understand “the social forces at work behind the retreat from marriage” (p.
11). This perspective is a good example of:
a. the biological imagination.
b. the psychological imagination.
c. the sociological imagination.
d. all of the above
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8. According to the authors, these women share similar experiences because of their:
a. race.
b. economic class.
c. religion.
d. ethnic group.
9. In their first paragraph, the authors write about Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s book, Creating a Life:
Professional Women and the Quest for Children. Why?
a. To show that society views childlessness as a tragedy for all women.
b. To warn women against postponing motherhood.
c. To make us feel sorry for career women who have trouble getting pregnant.
d. To show that society’s attitudes about motherhood depend on a woman’s economic class.
10. Some people argue that poor unmarried mothers find themselves in this position because
marriage has no value to them. In contrast, the reading demonstrates that poor unmarried
mothers:
a. have made irrational and self-destructive decisions.
b. believe that marriage is too expensive.
c. have given up hope of finding true love and companionship.
d. value marriage very highly, and don’t want to risk divorce or separation.
11. Why do the authors use interview methods in their research?
a. To find out why single mothers don’t marry.
b. To find out which single mothers don’t marry.
c. To find out how many single mothers marry.
d. none of the above
12. According to the authors, what do poor unmarried mothers believe about marriage?
a. They believe marriage is old-fashioned.
b. They don’t believe in marriage because they, too, were raised in single-parent families.
c. They insist on getting married once they find out that they are pregnant.
d. They believe in marriage, but want to wait until they can commit for life.
13. According to the authors, social scientific research has established that:
a. single parents are unskilled at parenting.
b. children of single-parent families do as well in life as the children of two-parent families.
c. children seem to do better in life when their parents get married and stay married.
d. children’s life outcomes are influenced by their parents’ personalities, not by whether
their parents are married or single.
14. On page 13, the authors reveal the “central tenet,” or most important part, of good mothering
for poor unmarried women. What is it?
a. “Providing” for their children.
b. “Loving” their children.
c. “Being there” for their children.
d. “Educating” their children.
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15. Based on the evidence presented in the reading, the authors conclude:
a. that poor unmarried mothers see their pregnancy as a sign that they are failures.
b. children provide love, companionship, and order in young women’s lives.
c. poor unmarried mothers come to regret getting pregnant at such early ages.
d. none of the above
16. What do the interviews with poor unmarried mothers tell us about why they have children
before marriage?
a. They aren’t romantically interested in men.
b. Their families can’t afford to throw them a big wedding.
c. They believe the marriages will eventually go bad, but motherhood is an important source
of identity.
d. Men don’t want to marry them after they’ve had children.
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