Excerpt from the Criminal Justice Program Review Report - 2015
VII. PRIORITIES FOR THE FUTURE: NEXT FIVE YEARS
A. Strengths
After its first six years of operation the state of the Dual-Joint A.S./B.A. Degree Program with John Jay
College of Criminal Justice is generally healthy. Enrollment has grown at an unexpectedly fast pace to a
level unimagined at the outset, and the number of faculty has increased to accommodate demand for
classes. Regarding student learning outcomes the overall results are satisfactory, but require
improvement. Results of the student survey indicate a high degree of student satisfaction with the
program. Upon completion of the A.S. degree at QCC, many students have successfully transferred to JJC
and have made good progress toward the baccalaureate degree.
B. Weaknesses
In regard to faculty the main weaknesses are the exceedingly high percentage of adjunct-taught classes
and the lack of full-time faculty to provide a high level of student advisement and mentoring for our
growing population, as well as to participate in curriculum development, course assessment and grant
work. Another area of weakness is course assessment, especially assessment utilizing task-based
methodologies and tracking progress in achievement of learning outcomes from the 100-level courses to
the 200-level courses.
C. Recommendations for Improvement
Assessment and Student Learning Outcomes
The most important priority regarding assessment is to expand our task-based assessments to all
required criminal justice courses and other key courses and to include a larger number of courses from
more faculty in those projects. To this end it will be important to have the new faculty participate in the
QCC Assessment Institute. Course assessment project results suggest very strongly the need to
disseminate information about General Education Objectives and Curricular Outcomes more
consistently and effectively to full- and part-time faculty, as well as to students. In addition faculty need
to make a concerted effort to embed those objectives and outcomes in their course contents and
assignments and to make students aware of ways in which the objectives and outcomes are being
addressed in class lessons and assignments. In the coming five years these matters will be addressed by
the Dept. Assessment Committee in collaboration with the criminal justice faculty.
Regarding specific deficiencies in student achievement of learning outcomes, special attention should be
directed at helping students to interpret and analyze research and data sets. It might prove helpful to
encourage faculty to focus more time and effort on these issues in their classes, e.g., by giving
assignments requiring students to read and interpret research and data analysis examples.
In response to the Strategic Plan for the CUNY Justice Academy, John Jay College is undertaking a
collaborative initiative that will bring together representatives of the community college partners with
John Jay faculty to discuss the prospect of developing some uniform assessment methodologies and
rubrics that may be used across the Academy to assess student engagement and satisfaction and
student learning outcomes. QCC will be represented in that initiative.
Excerpt from the Criminal Justice Program Review Report - 2015
Students
Although on major metrics such as graduation and grades the performance of CJ students is very similar
to those college-wide, the degree completion rate is five percent lower than the college-wide rate.
Faculty and advisors might do well to more strongly urge students to take better advantage of the
various support services (e.g., Learning Center, Math Center etc.) available on campus. Additionally,
using Starfish, the technology-based integrated planning and advisement system adopted by the college,
the department faculty can better connect students to advisement and tutoring services to improve
overall outcomes and student development.
Given the very low rate of participation by students in the out-of-the-classroom activities associated
with the program, faculty should troubleshoot ways of improving the dissemination of information
about available events and increasing student involvement. Some consideration of how to motivate
students to become engaged in those “extras” might be in order.
The findings also suggest a need to continue to monitor student performance outcomes at QCC to
determine if differences between CJ students and the broader QCC population will continue to narrow
and, in general, to help identify strategies to improve retention and graduation rates in the CJ program.
Of particular interest is whether replacing Pre-Calculus with Statistics will help move students toward
graduation. This will require the assistance of our Institutional Research Office.
Data on student achievement after graduation is necessarily limited by the relatively short age of the
program. In the future, we will continue to work with JJC to track student achievement there and to
coordinate our programs to best prepare students to work towards baccalaureate degrees. Experience
suggests that it is difficult to track students who graduate from QCC but do not transfer into JJC.
Considering, however, that some students may begin careers in CJ with only an associate degree, an
attempt might be made to follow-up with students who chose not to pursue baccalaureate degrees.
Faculty Development
Because of the importance of course and program assessment, the department will need to encourage
full-time and part-time faculty to participate in professional development activities to better familiarize
them with assessment work. It also will be necessary to have faculty be more attentive to the need to
inform students about the learning outcomes for their courses and to provide them with opportunities
to acquire skills needed to achieve those outcomes. It is especially important to include adjunct faculty
in these endeavors because most classes in the program are adjunct-taught.
Resources, Equipment and Facilities
Financial resources are needed to enhance support for the following:
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faculty participation in professional development activities
student participation in out-of-the-classroom activities (e.g., field trips; guest speakers)
instructional technology (e.g., software; online demos)