Queensborough Community College
Academic Program Review
Response and Action Plan for Degree Programs
Program reviewed:
A.S., Criminal Justice
Date of site visit:
February 4, 2016
QCC Review Committee:
Dr. Liz Bartels, Social Sciences
Dr. Jane Poulsen, Social Sciences
QCC Department chair:
Dr. Joseph Culkin, Social Sciences
Administrative support:
Dr. Arthur Corradetti
Dean for Accreditation, Assessment, and
Institutional Effectiveness
Ms. Elisabeth Lackner, Director
Institutional Research and Assessment
Dr. Ian Beckford
Learning Outcomes Assessment Manager
External reviewer:
Dr. Jennifer Wynn
La Guardia Community College
Report to be presented to the Vice President for Academic Affairs
Queensborough Community College
Academic Program Review
Response and Action Plan for Degree Programs
1. Corrections to reviewer’s report
None
2. Major conclusions of academic program review
Program strengths
After its first six years of operation, 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. After completing the A.S. degree at
QCC, many students have successfully transferred to JJC and have made good progress toward
the baccalaureate degree.
Program weaknesses
Two areas stand out: 1) with regard to faculty, the main weaknesses are the exceedingly high
percentage of adjunct-taught classes, the lack of full-time faculty to provide a high level of
student advisement and mentoring for the growing student population, and the lack of full-time
faculty who can participate in curriculum development, course assessment, and grant work; 2)
with regard to course assessment, the program should increase use of task-based
methodologies and tracking progress in the achievement of learning outcomes from the 100level to the 200-level courses.
Recommendations
Assessment and Student Learning Outcomes
The most important priority regarding assessment is to expand task-based assessments to all
required Criminal Justice (CJ) courses and other key courses and to include a larger number of
course sections from more faculty in those projects. To this end, it will be important to have the
new faculty participate in the 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 content 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
next five years, these matters will be addressed by the Dept. Assessment Committee in
collaboration with the CJ faculty.
Queensborough Community College
Academic Program Review
Response and Action Plan for Degree Programs
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 uniform assessment
methodologies and rubrics that may be used across the Academy to assess student
engagement and satisfaction and learning outcomes. QCC is represented in that initiative.
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 urge students more strongly to take
better advantage of the various support services (e.g., Learning Center, Math Center etc.)
available on campus. Using Starfish, the technology-based integrated planning and advisement
system adopted by the college, department faculty can better connect students to advisement
and tutoring services to improve overall outcomes and students 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 toward
motivating students to become engaged in those “extras” might be in order. The findings also
suggest a need to continue to monitor student performance outcomes 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 Institutional Research.
Data on student achievement after graduation is necessarily limited by the relatively short life
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
Queensborough Community College
Academic Program Review
Response and Action Plan for Degree Programs
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: 1) faculty participation in
professional development activities; 2) student participation in out-of-the-classroom activities
(e.g., field trips, guest speakers); and 3) instructional technology (e.g., software, online demos).
3. Major conclusions of external reviewer
Major program strengths
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Enthusiastic, highly credentialed faculty and faculty development opportunities provided,
including the New Faculty Orientation, New Faculty Institute, and Assessment Institute
Strong leadership from the department chair and support from the administration,
including the Transfer Resource Unit, tasked with providing support to dual-joint programs
Strong enrollment in the program, which has increased dramatically from 582 in 2009 to
1,330 in 2014
From student survey results, a high degree of satisfaction with the effectiveness of faculty,
curriculum, and course availability; students are “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with the
quality of advisement received
Major program weaknesses
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Two areas of concern: insufficient space for faculty offices and overreliance on adjunct
faculty to teach program courses (at the same time, the college administration is
commended for securing two new full-time faculty lines for CJ program)
From student survey results, most students not participating in extra-curricular activities
Suggestions/recommendations
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Develop two new program courses—Juvenile Crime and Delinquency and Research
Methods
Designate Crime and Justice in Urban Society as a capstone course to show the degree to
which students meet overall program outcomes
Work with John Jay to ensure that learning outcomes are aligned
Host a conference or class trip to John Jay for students preparing to transfer
Queensborough Community College
Academic Program Review
Response and Action Plan for Degree Programs
4. Proposed action plan and timetable
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Continue and expand task-based assessment to all major courses (one to two courses
assessed each year, with cycle repeating).
Coordinate assessment efforts with those of CUNY Justice Academy to ensure consistency
of learning outcomes (plan is being developed this year; implement next year).
Develop a one-credit research methods course and submit as part of a curricular revision,
eliminating Physical Education requirement (develop and submit in fall 2016, implement in
2017).
Try rescheduling co-and extra-curricular events and activities to times other than club hours
to help increase attendance (plan in spring 2016, implement in fall 2016).
Using Starfish, expand outreach to students concerning advisement and tutoring services
available to improve overall outcomes and student development (implement immediately).
Continue to work with John Jay to track student achievement there and to coordinate
associate- and baccalaureate-level programs to prepare students better to work toward the
baccalaureate degree (ongoing and every year).
Include adjunct faculty in assessment efforts as much as possible because most classes in
the program are taught by adjuncts (ongoing and every year).
Obtain and use financial resources to enhance support for 1) faculty participation in
professional development activities, 2) student participation in out-of-the-classroom
activities, and 3) instructional technology (discuss with OAA this year, with implementation
beginning in fall 2016).