Political Science Assessment
Description of the measure
Measure ID
DIR 1
• Students in the Political Science senior seminars of Spring Semester 2010 will be asked to submit their research papers for placing on the on the H drive for review. The papers will not be
identified by the authors’ names.
• A review group of three faculty members will review the papers and assess the extent to which they successfully demonstration skill 5 (above) in our assessment plan.
• They will do so by reading and scoring the papers in advance and then meeting to discuss their findings and to make a report including findings and recommendations to the rest of the
Department.
• The review group meeting will take place either towards the end of the Spring Semester (after research papers have been completed and submitted) or during the summer.
• The review group’s report will be presented to a Department Meeting in the Fall Semester of 2010.
• At the same Department Meeting, the program will be evaluated with a view to extending it to other courses (initially Pol 1011: Introduction to American Government and Politics), identifying the
next skill to be evaluated, and supplementing it or replacing it with other measures (transcript analysis and uniform testing, for example).
Direct Measures
Program Outcomes
Knowledge of the main fields in political
science. Graduates will be able to identify
the main fields in political science (including
American politics, comparative politics,
international relations and political theory),
the conventions they use in organizing and
analyzing information and in making and
assessing arguments, and the way in which
they contribute to and are enriched by
scholarship in other fields and disciplines.
Knowledge of main concepts, theories,
positions and problems in the study and
practice of politics, and the key figures
associated with them. Graduates will be
familiar with a variety of analytical
frameworks used in the study of politics, with
the types of problems, puzzles and
questions at stake in the study and practice
of politics, and with the (often competing)
values at stake in political activity.
Graduates also will be able to identify, where
appropriate, the people who made
substantial contributions to the study and/or
practice of politics.
Knowledge of the institutions, structures and
processes of politics and government at
local, national, regional, international and
global levels. Graduates will be able to
understand the organizations involved,
planning and collaboration required, process
and limitations of execution, and the
purposes for and trends regarding
participation in political activity at all levels of
political life today and in the past.
Pol 4190
Measure
DIR 1
Collect Term
Spring
2010
Measure
DIR 1
Collect Term
Spring
2011
Measure
DIR 1
Collect Term
Spring
2012
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Indirect Measures
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Other 1 Other 2 Other 3 Other 4
Skill in arguing within disciplinary
conventions about the concepts, theories,
positions and problems at stake in the study
and practice of politics, in both written and
oral forms. Graduates will be able to
demonstrate skill in writing and speaking
about political ideas, issues, and problems
by developing, researching and defending
an argument within disciplinary conventions
of analysis, with effective and critical use of
sources and/or evidence, with attention to
reasonable counterarguments, and through
clear, graceful and logically organized prose.
Skill in identifying political science research
problems, questions or puzzles and applying
appropriate methods and techniques for
their investigation. Graduates will be able to
demonstrate skill in identifying an original
research agenda within political science and
applying appropriate methods and
techniques for their investigation including,
but not restricted to, the creation and
interpretation of data sets, formal reasoning,
the construction of narratives, and the
deconstruction of language and symbols.
Measure
DIR 1
Collect Term
Spring
2013
Measure
DIR 1
Collect Term
Spring
2014