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General Education Assessment Schedule
Austin Community College currently has seven general education
competencies: the skills, attitudes and behaviors that characterize the educated
person. The competencies are taught in many different courses across the Core
Curriculum, reflecting relationships across programs and between classes. As
such, they help to shape the experiences of nearly every student.
To better align our general education program with state guidelines, Civic
Awareness and Cultural Awareness were merged a combined competency, and
Ethical Reasoning and Life/Personal Skills have been likewise fused into a single
competency of Personal Responsibility. The new set of seven competencies are:
Civic and Cultural Awareness
 Analyzing and critiquing competing perspectives in a democratic society;
comparing, contrasting, and interpreting differences and commonalities
among peoples, ideas, aesthetic traditions, and cultural practices
Critical Thinking
 Gathering, analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating and applying information.
Personal Responsibility
 Identifying and applying ethical principles and practices; demonstrating
effective learning, creative thinking, and personal responsibility.
Interpersonal Skills
 Interacting collaboratively to achieve common goals.
Quantitative and Empirical Reasoning
 Applying mathematical, logical and scientific principles and methods.
Technology Skills
 Using appropriate technology to retrieve, manage, analyze, and present
information.
Written, Oral and Visual Communication
 Communicating effectively, adapting to purpose, structure, audience, and
medium.
Meaningful assessment of these general education competencies serves to
promote continuous improvement and helps guide faculty and staff in pursuing
strategies to help students to succeed. Every competency should be assessed
every year. Moreover, there is an expectation that the assessment data will be
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used to develop action plans, which will, in turn, be evaluated to determine their
impact.
At the same time, there is a critical need to not overburden faculty and
department chairs with demands that are overwhelming. As such, the following
schedule has been created so as to promote less frequent but more meaningful
assessment, while simultaneously meeting the expectations of both SACS and the
Coordinating Board. Wherever possible, disciplines are also encouraged to
address two competencies with one assessment, e.g. a writing assignment that
requires critical thinking.
The three years of assessment are labeled, respectively, “1”, “2”, or “3”.
Because this schedule will be implemented beginning in the ’13-’14 academic
year, that would be “Year 1”. Courses in each component area will assess the
stated competency in the designated year if they teach them. For example, in
Year 1, courses in:
 English Rhetoric/Composition will assess Personal Responsibility
 Communications will assess Critical Thinking and Written, Oral, and
Visual Communications
 Mathematics will assess Critical Thinking and Quantitative and
Empirical Reasoning
 Natural Sciences will assess Personal Responsibility and Interpersonal
Skills
 Humanities will assess Civic & Cultural Awareness, Interpersonal
Skills, and Technology Skills
 Visual & Performing Arts will assess Civic & Cultural Awareness and
Technology Skills
 History will assess Personal Responsibility
 Government will assess Critical Thinking and Written, Oral, and
Visual Communications
 Other Social & Behavioral Sciences will assess Technology Skills and
Written, Oral, and Visual Communications
In each case, only those courses in which the designated competency is identified
as being addressed will be expected to assess it. So, for example, only those
courses in the Humanities that teach Technology Skills will be expected to assess
it in Year 3.
The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has recently adopted new
guidelines for the Core Curriculum with which institutions will have to comply
by fall 2014. These include requirements that courses in certain component areas
address particular competencies. These expectations are included in the
accompanying chart. Green boxes are those in which every course in a given
component area addresses that competency. Gray boxes are those in which at
least half of the courses address that competency. White boxes indicate that
relatively few courses in that component area address that competency.
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3
1
2
2
3
1
3
3
2
1
1
3
2
1
5- Quantitative and
Empirical Reasoning
7- Written, Oral, and
Visual Communication
Mathematics
6- Technology Skills
2
4- Interpersonal Skills
Communications
3- Personal
Responsibility
English Rhetoric/
Composition
2 - Critical Thinking
Component Areas
1 - Civic & Cultural
Awareness
General Education Competencies
Natural Sciences
3
2
1
1
2
3
3
Humanities
1
2
3
1
3
1
2
Visual & Performing
Arts
1
3
2
3
1
2
History
2
3
1
3
Government
3
1
2
1
Other Social and
Behavioral Sciences
3
2
Year 1 is AY ’13 – ‘14
Year 2 is AY ’14 – ‘15
Year 3 is AY ’15 – ‘16
3
1
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