Elizabeth Bartels (Social Sciences)
Spring 2013 Assessment Institute
Assessment Report of CJ 101_LC, Introduction to the American Criminal Justice System
1. List your student learning outcomes and the general education objectives that are related to those
student learning outcomes.
LO1:
Gather, interpret, and assess information from a variety of sources and points of view.
GEO1:
Students wrote an argumentative writing paper, in favor of either the prosecution or the
defense. The students chose different sources of evidence to use in persuading the audience to
his/her point of view.
LO2:
Evaluate evidence and arguments critically or analytically.
GEO2:
Students developed a thesis statement of how realistic a fictional television show, or movie, was
in its portrayal of the American criminal justice system. This paper required students to use
knowledge gained in the course to support their assessments.
LO3:
Produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support conclusions.
GEO3:
Students presented arguments for either the defense or prosecution in a mock trial assignment.
The students were required to provide evidence to support their position.
LO4:
Examine how an individual's place in society affects experiences, values, or choices.
GEO3:
Students discussed their personal experiences with the criminal justice system in a discussion of
the accuracy of the media’s portrayal of American criminal justice.
2. Discuss the assignments that students completed.
Assignment #1: Students were given a mock trial case, People v. Andrew Madison, which involved a high
school student who was charged with disorderly conduct and assault of a police officer. The case was
downloaded from the Street Law website (streetlaw.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating
students about law, democracy, and human rights. Street Law provided a packet of information including:
witness testimony, police reports, academic transcripts, media clippings, statutes, police personnel records,
relevant case law, and jury instructions pertaining to the People v. Andrew Madison case.
The students were each given the Street Law case packet on People v. Andrew Madison (see Appendix III). The
students were asked to complete the following assignment:
1. Choose to argue the case as the prosecuting attorney OR the defense attorney.
2. Choose at least THREE pieces of evidence (from packet) to support your case.
3. Present argument in essay form, with introduction and conclusion.
Assignment #2: Students were asked to view a fictional police crime drama based in the United States and
write a thesis statement on how realistic they thought the crime drama was. The students were to argue their
viewpoint using the knowledge of what they had learned in class and their own personal experiences. This
assignment was a joint assignment with Prof. Rogers’ ENG 101 because it was a learning community class.
Prof. Rogers assessed the students solely on their achievement of the English learning outcomes, and I
assessed the students based on the criminal justice learning outcomes. The students received separate grades
from each instructor.
3. Discuss the evidence that was used to determine how well students were achieving the selected
outcomes, including the instruments that were used to collect data.
The students’ learning outcome achievement was assessed using the rubrics below for assignments one and
two respectively.
Assignment #1 Rubric: People v. Andrew Madison mock trial assignment
Gather, interpret,
and assess
information from a
variety of sources
and points of view.
Produce wellreasoned written or
oral arguments
using evidence to
support
conclusions.
Outstanding
Strong evidence of
using reliable sources
of information from
packet. May have used
more than the required
min. of 3 different
source of information.
Good
Evidence of using
reliable sources of
information.
Contained the 3
required sources of
evidence.
Minimally Adequate
Evidence of using
mostly reliable sources.
Overly relying on 1 or
2 sources of evidence.
Inadequate
Evidence of using
no sources of
evidence to support
argument.
Thesis statement is
strong and clear. Used
more than the required
three sources of
evidence to logically
support the thesis
statement.
Thesis statement is
clear. Used the three
required sources to
logically support
thesis.
Thesis statement is
vague. Excessive
reliance on one or two
sources of evidence to
suppport argument.
There is no clear
thesis statement.
Argument is based
on mainly opinion,
lacks facts to
support.
Assignment #2 Rubric: Fictional Police Drama assignment
Evaluate evidence
and arguments
critically or
analytically.
Examine how an
individual's place
in society affects
experiences,
values, or choices.
Produce wellreasoned written or
oral arguments
using evidence to
support
conclusions.
Outstanding
Strong evidence of
critical analysis of
crime show. Students
may have analyzed the
drama on more than
the required min. of 3
different topic areas.
Student clearly and
thoughtfully applied
one’s own life
experiences to the
presentation of police
in the drama.
Thesis statement is
strong and clear. Used
at least two outside
sources to further
provide evidence for
conclusion.
Good
Evidence of critical
analysis of crime
show. Contained the
required min. of 3
different topics to use
in discussion.
Minimally Adequate
Some evidence of
thoughtful analysis of
crime drama. Only
mention of one or two
topics in discussion.
Inadequate
No evidence of
thoughtful analysis
of crime drama. No
topics were covered
in the analysis.
Student applied one’s
own life experiences
to the presentation of
police in the drama
but without much
insight.
Thesis statement is
clear. Used one
outside source to
further provide
evidence for
conclusion.
Minimal application of
one’s own life
experiences to topic of
presentation of police
in the drama.
Did not relate life
experiences to the
topic of criminal
justice.
Thesis statement is
vague. Used no
outside sources to
further provide
evidence for
conclusion.
There is no clear
thesis statement.
Used no outside
sources and no APA
citations.
4. Provide an analysis (and summary) of the assessment results that were obtained.
Assignment #1 Rubric: People v. Andrew Madison mock trial assignment
Gather, interpret,
and assess
information from a
variety of sources
and points of view.
Produce wellreasoned written or
oral arguments
using evidence to
support
conclusions.
Outstanding
3 (23%)
Good
3 (23%)
Minimally Adequate
5 (38%)
Inadequate
2 (15%)
4 (31%)
2 (15%)
7 (54%)
0
Assignment #2 Rubric: Fictional Police Drama assignment
Outstanding
Good
Evaluate evidence
2 (17%)
8 (67%)
and arguments
critically or
analytically.
Examine how an
4 (33%)
0
individual's place in
society affects
experiences, values,
or choices.
Produce well4 (33%)
4 (33%)
reasoned written or
oral arguments using
evidence to support
conclusions.
*Percents do not add up to 100 because rounded decimals were used.
Minimally Adequate
2 (17%)
Inadequate
0
0
8 (67%)
2 (17%)
2
(17%)
Summary of Results: My assessment plan indicated that satisfactory results would be obtained if 65% of
students achieved a measure of “good” or “outstanding.” Unfortunately, this class suffered from high
rates of absenteeism and only 13 papers were submitted for assignment one, and 12 papers submitted for
assignment two. Based on this relatively small sample size, it appears that satisfactory results were only
obtained for two of the four learning outcomes: LO2- Evaluate evidence and arguments critically or
analytically and LO3 – Produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support
conclusions. Interestingly, learning outcome two was achieved in assignment two but not in assignment
one.
5. Describe how the assessment results that were obtained affected (or did not affect) the student
learning outcomes you identified. As part of your discussion, describe any plans you have to address
the areas where students need to improve.
The results indicated that students successfully met LO 2 and LO 3, but not LO1 or LO4. A discussion of
each learning outcome is listed below.
LO1: Gather, interpret, and assess information from a variety of sources and points of view.
Assignment one was used to assess this outcome. The students received a “good” score if they
presented three required sources of information from the legal packet to support their case. An
“outstanding” score was given to students who presented more than the three required sources.
The students appeared to have trouble with this learning outcome. Only 46% of the students were
able to achieve a good or outstanding score. The majority of students (54%) chose to include only one
or two sources of evidence to support their argument. I believe that students received this result,
because one or two of the sources of information in the packet were straightforward – i.e. academic
transcripts and police reports. The other sources became more complex; for example, relevant case
law and judicial statutes. Students seemed to omit using the more complex sources of information, so
only provided one or two of the more simple ones. This approach could be remedied by dedicating
more class time to a thorough discussion of case law and judicial statutes when we cover our law unit.
LO2: Evaluate evidence and arguments critically and analytically.
Assignment two was used to assess this learning outcome. Students received the “good” score if they
critically evaluated the evidence presented, using the required three topic areas as points of
comparison. Students received an “outstanding” score if there was strong evidence of critical analysis,
using more than the three required topic areas to make comparisons. The majority of students scored
satisfactorily on this learning outcome (84%). I believe this result was achieved because the topic areas
were listed specifically on the term paper directions and related back to prior class lessons.
LO3: - Produce well-reasoned written or oral arguments using evidence to support conclusions.
Interestingly, learning outcome three was achieved in assignment two but not in assignment one. In
assignment one, learning outcome three was assessed in the use of evidence from the People v.
Andrew Madison case packet. The evidence helped to support the student’s position as either
prosecution or defense. The students were given “good” measures if they used the three required
sources of evidence, and “outstanding” if they used more than the four required pieces of evidence.
Slightly less than half (49%) the students were able to complete this task, but over half (54%) were
unable to do so. The students most often omitted to mention the sources of evidence that they were
relying on in their arguments.
In the future, I would review more thoroughly examples of arguments where there was evidence
clearly cited by the author to support his point. I would pass out writing samples to students of
authors who did follow this method, and those who did not. I would ask the students to comparecontrast the writing samples and explain the differences between them.
In the second assignment, students achieved satisfactory results. The students might have achieved
better results in this assignment because the topics they needed to discuss were listed for them
already in the directions. The students needed to choose three of the topics in their argument, instead
of sifting through evidence themselves to use in their arguments, as needed in assignment one.
Students were also asked in the second assignment to use outside sources to help their argument.
The students were probably more familiar with the evidence used in the second assignment (class
notes, textbook, scholarly sources, news articles) than the legal information packet given them which
contained unfamiliar material to examine (case law, personnel and school records, police reports). I
would work to remedy this situation by more thoroughly discussing the evidence in their case law
packet in our legal unit.
LO 4: Examine how an individual’s place in society affects experiences, values, or choices.
Assignment two was used to assess learning outcome four. Students achieved the lowest scores on
this outcome. Sixty-seven percent of students were considered “inadequate” which was measured as
not relating life experiences to the topic of criminal justice.
The low score can probably best be explained by the directions for the paper. The directions only
mentioned in the introduction that students should “addresses the following main idea: was the
portrayal you observed accurate as far as what you have learned and experienced concerning the
Criminal Justice System thus far?” This requirement was not listed again later on in the directions
where the requirements were outlined (see Appendix I). This situation could be easily improved by
having the requirement to compare one’s personal experiences to the crime drama emphasized more
in the term paper directions, and to even discuss these experiences as a class.
Conclusion
Overall, the two assignments illustrated that students tend to do well formulating well-reasoned
arguments to support their points of view, but do struggle with using evidence effectively to support
these arguments. This assessment exercise highlighted the need to review with students how clearly
cited sources of evidence can greatly strengthen a position. I also need to develop more writing
assignments that encourage the expression of one’s opinions regarding the American criminal justice
system.
6. Provide an example of student artifacts.
Please see attached student work in appendices.
Appendix
I.
Term Paper Directions
II.
Student Writing Samples (attached PDF)
III.
People v. Andrew Madison case law packet (attached PDF)
I.
TERM PAPER DIRECTIONS
Assignment #1: People v. Andrew Madison Mock Trial Assignment Directions
FIRST DRAFT DUE May 13, 2013. FINAL DRAFT DUE May 22.
1. Choose to argue the case as the prosecuting attorney OR the defense attorney.
2. Choose at least THREE pieces of evidence (from packet) to support your case.
3. Present argument in essay form, with introduction and conclusion.
TWO to FOUR pages double spaced.
Assignment #2: Fictional Police Drama Assignment
Shared Essay Assignment
Watch one full FICTIONAL episode of a U.S. based television series or major motion picture which deals
predominately with a member of the law enforcement community as the main protagonist. Write a 3-4 page
(double-spaced) Argumentative Essay which addresses the following main idea: was the portrayal you
observed accurate as far as what you have learned and experienced concerning the Criminal Justice System
thus far?
Be sure to address the following requirements:
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Two Citation Pages (One detailing your sources in APA format, as required for your Intro. to Criminal
Justice course, and a second Work Cited page in MLA format as required for EN101) citing your chosen
television show or movie, as well as any additional sources referenced.
A brief synopsis of the episode or movie so as to “introduce” the material you intend to discuss and
provide context for your argument.
A thesis statement based on whether or not you agreed or disagreed as to whether the television
show, or movie, was “realistic” or not, based on what you have learned so far, including reasons or
examples from the main points/topics you intend to examine throughout your paper, in order to back
up your opinion/perspective/thesis.
An in depth discussion focusing on at least THREE of SIX topics from the list below. You will need to
explain the topic and quote from class texts while citing scenes/examples from your chosen program,
as well as reference ideas from our in-class discussions. Discuss the significance of each main topic AS
IT APPLIES TO YOUR THESIS STATEMENT. *You will need to compare what you have learned in class
and through reading with what you saw in the program.
Topics for consideration:
Types of calls for service
Proactive OR Reactive Policing
Stop and Frisk
Women and minority representation
Respect for the 4th and 5th Amendment
Types of police misconduct