2013-2014 Annual Program Assessment Report
Please submit report to your department chair or program coordinator, the Associate Dean of your College and the assessment
office by Monday, September 30, 2013. You may submit a separate report for each program which conducted assessment activities.
College: Social and Behavioral Science
Department: N/A
Program: Master of Public Administration. The MPA program is a college level interdisciplinary program administered through the Tseng
College.
Assessment liaison: Henrik Minassians (Chair), TBD (committee)
1. Overview of Annual Assessment Project(s). Provide a brief overview of this year’s assessment plan and process.
In 2013, the academic oversight of the MPA program was shifted from the Tseng College to the College of Social and Behavioral
Sciences. As a result of this transition, the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences has initiated a process by which regular
assessment and program review will be conducted. Currently, this program has no assessment plan or data. The college Dean
has appointed a program review and assessment liaison who will work with the academic director of self-support programs, and
faculty to design a comprehensive 5 year assessment plan along with annual assessment reports.
2. Assessment Buy-In. Describe how your chair and faculty were involved in assessment related activities. Did department
meetings include discussion of student learning assessment in a manner that included the department faculty as a whole?
Currently, this program has no assessment plan or data. The academic director for the program, who meets regularly with MPA
faculty will initiate a dialogue on student learning assessment, which will inform the reformulation of the MPA SLOs. The
program has assigned a new assessment liaison who will work with the academic director in order to design a comprehensive 5
year assessment plan along with annual assessment reports.
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3. Student Learning Outcome Assessment Project. Answer items a-f for each SLO assessed this year. If you assessed an additional
SLO, copy and paste items a-f below, BEFORE you answer them here, to provide additional reporting space.
The Educational Goals of the CSUN MPA Program:
Although none of these SLOs have been measured, the educational goals of the MPA program focus on the skills, abilities, and habits
of mind that a public and non-profit sectors professional would need to act in a leadership role in public sector and non-profit
administrative service. Through the MPA program a program graduate should:
Learning Objectives #1:
Gain the ability to critically analyze, create or improve, and implement, effective public policy in public sector programs and
services.
Rubric:
1. Show that you are able to conceptualize and specifically identify a substantively important policy or organizational problem
(level 1).
2. Identify specific policy alternatives and solutions (level 2).
3. Describe and prescribe an appropriate policy recommendation (level 3).
Learning Objectives #2:
Acquire the foundation knowledge needed to understand the distinctive character and responsibilities of public sector
administration in a democratic society.
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Rubric:
1. Discuss accurately and in details the theories in public administration and policy and their relevance to the real world policy
and organizational problems (level 1).
2. Use public administration concepts in meaningful and accurate ways to analyze distinctive character and responsibilities of
public sector administrators (level 1).
3. Discuss the specific public administration value conflicts and dilemmas that administrators encounter in decision making
(level 2).
Learning Objectives #3:
Acquire the breadth and depth of knowledge about the challenges and model practices of contemporary public sector
administration needed to be effective in that context.
Rubric:
1. Make accurate and detailed social scientific observations about a series of public sector problems and issues (level 1).
2. Using scientific or systematic analysis, describe leadership and management approaches to solving these problems (level 2).
Learning Objectives #4:
Acquire an understanding of the special challenges and opportunities of public sector administration in a diverse urban context.
Rubric:
1. Through reliance on various social, policy and organizational variables, discuss emerging policy issues in the region (level 2).
2. Linking these variables, provide a specific unitary approach in solving social, political, policy and organizational problems in
the region (level 3).
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Learning Objectives #5:
Develop the skills and theoretical knowledge needed to redesign public sector organizations, staff and delivery systems; as well
as develop an understanding of the importance of cooperative and collaboration across unit lines and with external and
community partners.
Rubric:
1. Use various models and theories in organizational leadership to analyze effective management of a public sector organization
(level 1).
2. Show that you can identify specific public sector issues and problems across units (level 1).
3. Show that you can link and interconnect these problems across different units and problems/issues (level 1).
4. Show that you can develop specific solutions to these problems through cooperative and collaborative strategies across
various organizational units and policy domains (level 2).
5. Apply organizational management principles and models to develop a plan for managing small, midsize and large public and
non-profit organizations (level 2).
Learning Objectives #6:
Refine the ethical reasoning skills needed to address the complex value challenges that face those in public sector
administration.
Rubric:
1. After clearly identifying an ethical issue in the public sector, demonstrate the systematic reasoning necessary for making
decisions (level 1).
2. Through reliance on ethical principles in public administration and collaborative reasoning with peers, develop an ethical
model of conduct for particular public sector ethical dilemmas (level 2).
3. Express your own ethical reasoning and justification of policy decisions and their impact on others (level 3).
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Learning Objectives #7:
Develop foundation of financial management skills needed to critically analyze, develop, implement, and openly and ethically
manage budgets and resources in the public sector.
Rubric:
1. Use concepts, theories, and models of financial management for understanding budget documents as social and policy
choices (level 1).
2. Analyze different components of a budgetary document, and through ethical policy decisions present an alternative financial
document (level 2).
3. Working with diverse individuals, teams and organizational units develop a budget document incorporating others concerns
and priorities (level 3).
Learning Objectives #8:
Develop the foundation skills and abilities needed to address the essential issues of human resources management to build a
strong and effective team in the public sector through: effective hiring, staff development, staff evaluation, staff discipline and
performance correction and dismissal.
Rubric:
1. Make accurate and detailed observations that will allow you recognize and outline patterns of human resources practice
(level 1).
2. Develop effective procedures for hiring practices while maintaining ethical standards and best practices in the public sector
(level 2).
3. Describe current practices as to how can human resources management resolve cultural conflicts within a public sector (level
3).
4. Analyze the interdependence of people in a public organizational context; Identify potential issues and conflicts; propose
specific solutions to these situations (level 3).
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Learning Objectives #9:
Develop advanced communication skills needed for leadership in the public sector: strong oral communication skills in small
groups and in larger public contexts. Strong written communication and skills appropriate for writing reports, explaining issues
and policies, persuasively presenting initiatives, corresponding with colleagues and clients, and media communications.
Rubric:
1. As a professional, develop the ability to communicate observations and beliefs concerning public policy to others (level 1).
2. As a professional, develop the critical skills to think clearly and critically to fuse experience, reason, and training into
considered judgments (level 1).
3. As a professional, assess and determine a problem and its causes, form strategies that work on different situations to solve
the problem, and act on these strategies and evaluate their effectiveness (level 2).
4. As a professional, facilitate communication to encourage a variety of ideas and opinions and write clearly and to the point as
well as effectively present ideas and arguments orally (level 3).
Learning Objectives #10:
Develop a commitment to and a facility for ongoing learning through a variety of formal and informal modes. Develop the ability
to assess the credibility of various information sources.
Rubric:
1. Show that you can relate previous experience and knowledge to a new situation and problem (level 1).
2. Show that you can use a variety of arguments simultaneously to analyze a specific issue (level 2).
3. Show that you can use and apply social science methods to verify the credibility of information (level 3).
Analysis of Rubrics:
Level 1: Show observational skills, Draw reasonable inferences
Level 2: Perceive and make relationships, Analyze structure and organization
Level 3: Employ multidisciplinary framework in order to analyze, establish linkages between theory and practice as well as between
multiple policy problems and issues
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3a. Which Student Learning Outcome was measured this year?
Currently, this program has no assessment plan or data. The college Dean has appointed a program review and assessment
liaison who will work with the academic director of self-support programs, and faculty to design a comprehensive 5 year
assessment plan along with annual assessment reports.
3b. Does this learning outcome align with one or more of the university’s Big 5 Competencies? (Delete any which do not apply)

Critical Thinking – Gain the ability to critically analyze, create or improve, and implement, effective public
policy in public sector programs and services

Oral Communication – Develop advanced communication skills needed for leadership in the public sector:
strong oral communication skills in small groups and in larger public contexts. Strong written communication
and skills appropriate for writing reports, explaining issues and policies, persuasively presenting initiatives,
corresponding with colleagues and clients, and media communications.

Written Communication – Develop advanced communication skills needed for leadership in the public sector:
strong oral communication skills in small groups and in larger public contexts. Strong written communication
and skills appropriate for writing reports, explaining issues and policies, persuasively presenting initiatives,
corresponding with colleagues and clients, and media communications.

Information Literacy – Develop a commitment to and a facility for ongoing learning through a variety of formal
and informal modes. Develop the ability to assess the credibility of various information sources.
3c. Does this learning outcome align with University’s commitment to supporting diversity through the cultivation and exchange
of a wide variety of ideas and points of view? In what ways did the assessed SLO incorporate diverse perspectives related to race,
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ethnic/cultural identity/cultural orientations, religion, sexual orientation, gender/gender identity, disability, socio-economic
status, veteran status, national origin, age, language, and employment rank?
Currently, this program has no assessment plan or data. The program has assigned a new assessment liaison who will work with
the academic director in order to design a comprehensive 5 year assessment plan along with annual assessment reports.
3d. What direct and/or indirect instrument(s) were used to measure this SLO?
Currently, this program has no assessment plan or data. The program has assigned a new assessment liaison who will work with
the academic director in order to design a comprehensive 5 year assessment plan along with annual assessment reports.
3e. Describe the assessment design methodology: For example, was this SLO assessed longitudinally (same students at different
points) or was a cross-sectional comparison used (Comparing freshmen with seniors)? If so, describe the assessment points used.
Currently, this program has no assessment plan or data. The program has assigned a new assessment liaison who will work with
the academic director in order to design a comprehensive 5 year assessment plan along with annual assessment reports.
3f. Assessment Results & Analysis of this SLO: Provide a summary of how the results were analyzed and highlight findings from the
collected evidence.
Currently, this program has no assessment plan or data. The program has assigned a new assessment liaison who will work with
the academic director in order to design a comprehensive 5 year assessment plan along with annual assessment reports.
3g. Use of Assessment Results of this SLO: Describe how assessment results were used to improve student learning. Were
assessment results from previous years or from this year used to make program changes in this reporting year? (Possible changes
include: changes to course content/topics covered, changes to course sequence, additions/deletions of courses in program, changes
in pedagogy, changes to student advisement, changes to student support services, revisions to program SLOs, new or revised
assessment instruments, other academic programmatic changes, and changes to the assessment plan.)
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Currently, this program has no assessment plan or data. The program has assigned a new assessment liaison who will work with
the academic director in order to design a comprehensive 5 year assessment plan along with annual assessment reports.
4. Assessment of Previous Changes: Present documentation that demonstrates how the previous changes in the program resulted
in improved student learning.
N/A
5. Changes to SLOs? Please attach an updated course alignment matrix if any changes were made. (Refer to the Curriculum
Alignment Matrix Template, http://www.csun.edu/assessment/forms_guides.html.)
N/A
6. Assessment Plan: Evaluate the effectiveness of your 5 year assessment plan. How well did it inform and guide your assessment
work this academic year? What process is used to develop/update the 5 year assessment plan? Please attach an updated 5 year
assessment plan for 2013-2018. (Refer to Five Year Planning Template, plan B or C,
http://www.csun.edu/assessment/forms_guides.html.)
Currently, this program has no assessment plan or data. The program has assigned a new assessment liaison who will work with
the academic director in order to design a comprehensive 5 year assessment plan along with annual assessment reports.
1. Has someone in your program completed, submitted or published a manuscript which uses or describes assessment
activities in your program? Please provide citation or discuss
Not at this point.
2. Other information, assessment or reflective activities or processes not captured above.
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N/A
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