In 1999 a subcommittee of the Institutional Effectiveness Committee was selected and began the revision of the established general education goals originally written in
1992-3. These goals first appeared in the catalog in 1994. The committee began with the original goals which were as follows:
1992-3 CPCC General Education Goals
I. Communication:
Student should be able to communicate orally and in writing clearly and coherently, read with understanding, and listen perceptively, all at a level appropriate to their degrees or their occupational goals. They should understand how to locate, evaluate and present information effectively to an appropriate audience. These goals incorporate the ability to think critically or analytically so that students can evaluate and communicate ideas.
II. Natural Sciences/Mathematical Skills:
Students should understand the basic principles of science which govern the physical and natural world. Students should be able to apply mathematical concepts and skills to interpret, understand and communicate quantitative data in their personal, professional and academic endeavors.
III. Technology:
Students should acquire the skill to use computers in their personal and professional lives, ant they should be sensitive to the impact of technology on the individual, society and environment.
IV. Problem Solving and Critical Thinking:
Student should develop critical thinking skills that will allow them to analyze a variety of problems, select or create possible solutions, assess the impact of the solutions, and make informed judgments
V Humanities and Fine Arts:
Students should develop an awareness of the humanities and fine arts to broaden their understanding of their own culture and the culture of other places and times. They should also have the opportunity to recognize and develop their own creative skills.

VI. International Awareness:
Students should recognize the interdependence of all the world's people and demonstrate an awareness and understanding of the similarities and differences among the world's societies and cultures.
VII. Social/Behavioral Sciences:
Students should demonstrate an increased awareness of their own values, beliefs and behaviors as well as the values, beliefs and behaviors of others. Through knowledge and experience, students should develop their abilities to work as members of a group and work with people who are different from themselves. Students should also have an increased understanding of American culture and society so they are able to participate more effectively in the political and economic life of the United States. Students should improve their abilities to make decisions about education and employment based on their skills, interests and needs of the community.
VIII. Physical Education:
CPCC believes that college transfer students should have opportunities to participate in physical fitness activities and acquire information and experience which will promote their physical, mental and emotional health.
Evaluation of the Original Goals
The original goals were lengthy, had not been developed with assessment in mind and contained 33 separate skills that needed to be measured. The committee began revising the goals with several key issues in mind:
1) The SACS criteria which states “the institution must demonstrate that its graduates of degree programs are competent in: reading writing oral communication fundamental mathematical skills basic use of computers”
2) Basic educational outcomes/accomplishment desired by faculty in each course content area
Faculty representatives from each general education area participated on the
General Education Goal Revision Committee and those representatives sought and received faculty input from each department in their goal area.
As a result, the following new general education goals and measurement strategies were developed and pilot tested in the 2000-2001 academic year:

General Ed Goal
Reading - Students will demonstrate the ability to obtain meaning from printed, electronic, and graphical resources.
Communication
– Students will effectively communicate both orally and in writing. Students will demonstrate the ability to locate, critically evaluate, and present information.
Mathematics – Students will apply mathematical concepts and skills to analyze, manipulate, and interpret quantitative data.
Computer Skills – Students will demonstrate the basic computer skills necessary to function in a technological world.
Critical Thinking / Problem solving – Students will demonstrate an understanding of solving problems by recognizing the problem; reviewing information about the problem; developing plausible solutions; and evaluating results.
Cultural Awareness – Students will demonstrate knowledge of cultural differences.
Social / Behavioral Sciences – Students will demonstrate an understanding of the influence of the individual on group behavior and conversely, the influence of the group on the individual.
Natural Sciences – Students will demonstrate comprehension of the major steps of the scientific method.
Humanities / Fine Arts – Students will demonstrate knowledge of the humanities and critical skills in assessing cultural/artistic merit and significance.
Possible courses for assessment
RED090
COM110
COM231
ENG111
MAT115
MAT161
CIS110
CIS111
ENG111
ENG111
PSY150
HIS111
SOC210
BIO110
Rotate through all humanities courses

Explanation of New General Education Goals and Measurement Criteria
I. Reading
New Goal: Students will demonstrate the ability to obtain meaning from printed, electronic, and graphical resources.
Basic reading ability is considered essential to success in college-level coursework
. Therefore, “reading comprehension” placement testing is required for all degree-seeking students at CPCC. The reading placement test is given each term prior to enrollment to all entering degree-seeking students. A minimum score of 80 is required before students are allowed to enroll in English 111 (a required, writing and reading intensive course for all degree-seeking students). Therefore, a CPT Reading Placement test score of 80 or above is considered competent in reading. However, students who do not complete the reading placement test with a score of 80 or above are required to take one (or a series of) reading course(s) before they are allowed to progress to English
111. Students in this group (referred to developmental courses) will require further testing to determine competency in reading. In the Fall 2000 , reading placement tests were completed by 8,529 entering students with the following results and course referrals:
Number
362
1,140
1,862 placement test scores less than 34 between 34 and 56 between 57 and 79
5,162 (61%) 80 or above referral to course enrollment
ABE (adult basic literacy)
RED 080 (developmental)
RED 090 (developmental)
ENG 111 (required college-level)
Due to placement testing and course enrollment numbers, reading faculty determined that measuring reading at the end of RED 090 would give the best measure of reading ability. Because no tool existed that was designed to measured reading improvement in developmental reading courses, reading faculty created a course-specific assessment tool. In the Fall of 2000 reading faculty worked through several drafts of an assessment tool intended to assess an individual’s ability to obtain meaning from printed, electronic and graphical resources. This assessment tool will be given to all RED 090 students at the end of the term. Data on a random selection of students will be reported to the General Education Committee annually. A copy of that tool can be found in the reading section of this document.
II. Communication
New Goal: Students will effectively communicate both orally and in writing. Students will demonstrate the ability to locate, critically evaluate, and present information.
Because written communication and oral communication are not necessarily measured in any given course at the College, the goal was subdivided into two goals, one

that focused on written communication and was measured in English 111 and one that focused on oral communication and was measured in Communications 110 and 231.
Communications 110, 231 and English 111 are required courses for all degreeseeking students at CPCC. In the Fall 2000 , the following numbers of students enrolled in the following courses:
Fall 2000
Fall 2000
Fall 2000
Number Enrolled
661
574
1,454
Course and Number
COM 110
COM 231
ENG 111
Students in all sections of COM 111 are required to video-tape a speech to demonstrate their ability to communicate orally. All students in all sections of ENG 111 are required to report at one given time prior to finals week to complete a writing assignment to demonstrate their ability to write. The writing assignment consists of a lengthy written essay completed during a two-hour time period in response to one of a list of writing prompts. Enrollments in both courses is heavy each term. Faculty in both areas agreed to report the scores from a randomly selected number of courses annually to the General
Education Committee. Copies of the assessments and sample works can be found in the communications sections of the portfolio.
III. Mathematics
New Goal: Students will apply mathematical concepts and skills to analyze, manipulate, and interpret quantitative data.
The requirement of a math course for students is designed to assure that each student meets a minimal level of math competency. The majority of students enroll in Math 115 and Math 161. Therefore those courses were determined to be the most effective for assessment of general education goals. In Fall 2000, enrollment in those courses was as follows:
Number Enrolled
Fall 2000 172
Fall 2000 856
Course and Number
MAT 115
MAT 161
Math faculty determined that:
1) Applying mathematical concepts and skills to analyze quantitative data would be interpreted as the ability to evaluate verbal, numeric, symbolic and graphical quantitative data as well as identify appropriate extensions of this information.
2) Applying mathematical concepts and skills to manipulate quantitative data would be interpreted as the ability to simplify expressions, utilize formulas, and solve equations.

3) Applying mathematical concepts and skills to interpret quantitative data would be interpreted as the ability to use the solution from a mathematical process to solve a problem or draw a conclusion relevant to given quantitative information.
Math faculty created a series of common questions to be included on the final exam of all sections of each selected course. A copy of those questions can be found in the
“math” section of he portfolio.
IV. Computer Skills
New Goal: Students will demonstrate the basic computer skills necessary to function in a technological world.
The CIS faculty determined that basic computer skills involves the following computer operations: start and shut down using Windows OS how to work with desktop
(Windows - sizing/moving, opening/closing icons & menus) disk formatting file copying/deleting/moving creating folders
MS Word (word processing) start/close applications use word processing/spreadsheets terminology (hardware and software) computer components
All degree-seeking students must take either CIS 110 (college transfer) or CIS 111
(applied science programs). Both of these courses require that students pass five exams to pass the course. Each of these exams is 60% written testing and 40% hands-on, skillbased testing. The CIS faculty determined that "demonstrating basic computer skills" would be satisfied by the percentage of students who complete the written and skill-based testing for the first two exams in the course. Students who do not want to take CIS 110 or CIS 111 have the option of taking a placement test through the testing center. Only about 20% of students pass this placement test. The remainder must enroll in CIS 110 or
CIS 111. Enrollment in these courses is very heavy. During the Fall 2000 term, the following numbers enrolled in each course.
Number Enrolled Course and Number
Fall 2000
Fall 2000
973
581
CIS faculty agreed to report the scores from a randomly selected number of courses annually to the General Education Committee.
CIS 110
CIS 111

V. Critical Thinking / Problem Solving
New Goal: Students will demonstrate an understanding of solving problems by recognizing the problem; reviewing information about the problem; developing plausible solutions; and evaluating results.
VI. Cultural Awareness
New Goal: Students will demonstrate knowledge of cultural differences.
Because critical thinking/problem solving and cultural awareness are not a designated courses at the College but instead skills developed across the curriculum, assessing them was problematic. It was determined that these skills would be assessed in various courses on a rotating basis. The first two years, the skills would be assessed through the English department where students must write a lengthy essay as part of their final grade. English faculty agreed to included prompts focused on cultural diversity and critical thinking/problem solving for the English exam. The General Education Committee created grading rubrics for each area and selected faculty to grade the exams.
VII. Social / Behavioral Sciences
New Goal: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the influence of the individual on group behavior and conversely, the influence of the group on the individual.
Social and behavioral sciences included history, political science, sociology, psychology, economics and anthropology. Students are allowed to make multiple selections from an array of courses in each area. Through an analysis of enrollment trends, it was found that the majority of students selected History 111 (World Civilization I), Psychology 150
(General Psychology) and Sociology 210 (Introduction to Sociology) to fulfill their social science course requirements. Enrollment in those courses is heavy. Enrollment for Fall
2000 was as follows:
Fall 2000
Fall 2000
Fall 2000
Number Enrolled
600
1132
507
Course and Number
HIS 111
PSY 150
SOC 210
Therefore the faculty in each of those areas created assessment tools and grading criteria to be completed by students in each of the randomly selected courses. The sociology faculty and the history faculty created an essay question to measure the goal and the psychology faculty developed eight multiple choice questions. Sample assessment questions and grading rubrics can be found in the portfolio.

VIII. Natural Sciences
New Goal: Students will demonstrate comprehension of the major steps of the scientific method.
Criteria: Faculty in the Natural Sciences area determined that demonstrating comprehension of the steps in the scientific method involved a student being able to:
Analyze scientific data
Interpret scientific data
Draw conclusions based on presented data
Demonstrate knowledge of observation, stating hypotheses, performing experiments and drawing conclusions
Demonstrate knowledge of the nature of science
Development of an end of course assessment tool:
A multiple choice assessment tool was formulated using questions collected from biology faculty. The assessment test consists of 10 multiple-choice questions. The assessment will be updated periodically to include recent scientific experiments and data that the student may find interesting.
The Biology 110 classes were selected for assessment because the majority of students take the course for their science requirement. Enrollment numbers for the Fall of 2000 were as follows:
Fall 2000
Number Enrolled
405
IX. Humanities / Fine Arts
Course and Number
BIO 110
New Goal: Students will demonstrate knowledge of the humanities and critical skills in assessing cultural/artistic merit and significance.
Number Enrolled
Fall 2000 121
Fall 2000
Fall 2000
Fall 2000
279
215
107
Course and Number
HUM 130
MUS 110
ART 111
DRA 111

81
90
82
94
82
80
87
80
86
90
Students will demonstrate the ability to obtain meaning from printed, electronic, and graphical resources.
The Reading Goal was designed to ensure that each student meets a minimal level of competence in reading comprehension skills. For this reason, faculty set the following objective:
Objective: 70% of students will meet minimal objective for competence in reading comprehension skills
Means of assessment: 70% of students will receive at least a score of 80 or better on a cumulative final exam.
In order to measure objectives and student outcomes, faculty administered and recorded results for a cumulative final exam during the spring semester of 2001. The exam content consisted of specific reading skills that are taught in the RED 090 course.
They are as follows: reading and study strategies, vocabulary skills, inference, annotating, outlining, note taking, mapping, main idea skills and graphic illustrations.
The exam consisted of both open-ended and scantron graded items.
Results:
Forty exams were collected. All forty were evaluated and the scores were recorded as a component of each student’s final grade. The average score on the exam was 82.25. 10 students did not pass the exam. The goal was met with a 75% passing rate.
75
94
90
87
82
87
76
85
80
80
83
81
74
83
80
76
80
75
91
65
88
76
80
91
84
74
78
86
82
75

Goal: Students will effectively communicate both orally and in writing. Students will demonstrate the ability to locate, critically evaluate, and present information.
The requirement of a communication course for students is designed to assure that each student meets a minimal level of competence in organizing and presenting information for a public speech. For this reason, faculty set the following objective:
Objective: 70% of students will meet minimal objective for effective oral presentation.
Means of assessment : 70% of student speeches evaluated will receive at least a score of 3 or better on a 5 point evaluation rubric.
In order to measure objectives and student outcomes, faculty recorded final presentations in selected speech courses during the fall of 2000. Each presentation was then viewed and assessed by at least two coders and a number was assigned to that presentation based on a guiding rubric. If assigned scores were either identical for that presentation or within one score, the score itself or an average of the two adjacent scores was counted. Any speech that received scores from the two viewers that were either not identical or not adjacent scores was viewed by a third instructor.
Results:
Fifty speeches were collected. Forty-eight were evaluated because two speeches were incomplete on the tape. No speeches had to be viewed by a third instructor because of discrepancy in scores.
The scores for the 49 speeches that were evaluated are as follows:
A1 – 2
A2 – 3
A3 – 1.5
A4 – 3
B1 – 2
B2 – 1
B3 – 2
B4 – 3.5
C1 – 3.75 D1 – 3.5 E1 – 4.5 F1 – 3.375
C2 – 3.75 D2 – na E2 – 3 F2 – 3
C3 – 3.25 D3 – 3.25 E3 – 2.875 F3 – 4.5
C4 – 4.25 D4 – 2.5 E4 – 3.25 F4 – 4
A5 – 3.5
A6 – 3
A7 – 4
A8 – 2.5
B5 – 3
B6 – 3.5
B7 – 3.5
B8 – 3
C5 – 2.75
C6 – 3.5
C7 – 4.25
C8 – 4.0
C9 – 3.25
C10 – 3.5
C11 – 4.5
C12 – 3.5
D5 – 3.0
D6 – 3.5
E5 – 2.5
E6 – 2.5
E7 – 1.875
E8 – 2.75
E9 – 3.5
F5 – 2.5
F6 – 3.375
Of those evaluated, 70.8% of student speeches received a 3 (1 = poor; 5 = excellent) or better from evaluating faculty.

Goal: Students will effectively communicate both orally and in writing. Students will demonstrate the ability to locate, critically evaluate, and present information.
The requirement of the English 111 course for students is designed to assure that each student meets a minimal level of competence in writing. For this reason, faculty set the following objective:
Objective: 70% of students will be able to communicate effectively in writing.
.
Means of assessment :
70% of students will complete the writing exam with a grade of 7 (C) or better.
Definition of Effective Written Communication:
In order to measure objectives and student outcomes, students were required to complete a three-hour written exam each term. Each exam was assessed by at least two graders and a number was assigned to that presentation based on a guiding rubric. If assigned scores were either identical for that presentation or within one score, the score itself or an average of the two adjacent scores was counted. Any exam that received scores from two viewers that were either not identical or not adjacent scores was viewed by a third instructor.
Results of English 111 Written Exams
Writing Assessment Exams 1999-2000
# who Exam Grades
Term # Enrolled took exam A B C D F
________________________________________________________________________
Summer 99
Fall 99
Spring 00
280 201
1470 865
1192 714
Academic Year Totals
1
11
10
41
274
173
122
460
384
31
118
139
6
2
8
Numbers 2,942 1,780
Percent 60.5
Percent that met the benchmark:
22 488 966
1.2 27.4 54.3
82.9%
288 16
16.2 .9

Writing Assessment Exams 2000-2001
Term # Enrolled
# who took exam A
Exam Grades
B C D F
________________________________________________________________________
Summer 00
Fall 00
Spring 01
144 111
1495 959
1166 786
4
6
24
185
66
17 316 515
432
14 3
95 16
140 23
Academic Year Totals
Numbers 2,805 1,856
Percent 66.2
Percent that met the benchmark:
27
1.5
84.3%
525
28.3
1,013
54.6
249
13.4
42
2.3

Goal: Students will apply mathematical concepts and skills to analyze, manipulate, and interpret quantitative data.
Math faculty determined that the skills necessary to meet the above goal are:
1.
The ability to analyze quantitative data
2.
The ability to manipulate quantitative data
3.
The ability the interpret quantitative data
Therefore, the following objective was set for the purpose of general education assessment:
Objective: 60% of those taking the final exam will show mastery of all three goals.
Means of assessment : 60% of those taking the final exam will correctly answer three of five questions on each of the three goal areas.
Math faculty developed a testing instrument that consisted of 15 multiple choice questions - five for each of the three skill areas adopted by the department. The questions were prepared each semester and included in the final exam. Students were considered to have "mastered" the skills if three of the five questions were answered correctly on each of the goal areas.
During the pilot study year, the assessment was given to one class of students with the following results:
Number taking the exam
Number passing the course
Number who met the criteria in all three goal areas
Number who met the criteria for two goals
22
17
14 (63.6%)
3 (13.6%)
After the pilot test results, the math faculty revised their assessment tool and began full implementation in Fall 2001.

Goal: Students will demonstrate the basic computer skills necessary to function in a technological world.
To measure the goal, the following objective was set:
Objective: 80% of students enrolling in or attempting to test out of CIS 110 or CIS
111 will score a 60% or higher on the combined scores for the first two incourse exams.
During the Spring Semester 2001, 14 sections of CIS 110 and CIS 111 were selected and scores on the first two exams were analyzed. A total of 294 students were enrolled in the
14 sections. Assessment results were as follows:
Number who took both exams
(65 did not take both exams and could not be compared)
Number/percent who earned an average of 60% on both exams
229
218 (95.2%)
Grade sheets for the 14 sections and sample exams can be found in the “computer” section of the portfolio.

New Goal: Students will demonstrate an understanding of solving problems by recognizing the problem; reviewing information about the problem; developing plausible solutions; and evaluating results.
During the Spring of 2001, 64 student papers were selected for the purpose of assessing critical thinking and problem solving skills. Papers were graded utilizing a grading rubric scaled from 1 to 5.
Objective: At least 60% of students will score a 3 or better on the critical thinking and problem solving assessment.
Assessment results were as follows:
Scoring Range: 3 – 5
2
1
28.1%
59.4%
12.5%

New Goal: Students will demonstrate knowledge of cultural differences.
During the Spring of 2001, 64 student papers were selected for the purpose of assessing cultural awareness. Papers were graded utilizing a grading rubric scaled from 1 to 5.
Objective: At least 60% of students will score a 3 or better on the cultural diversity assessment.
Assessment results were as follows:
Scoring Range: 3 – 5
2
1
39.7%
29.7%
20.6%

Goal: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the influence of the individual on group behavior and conversely, the influence of the group on the individual.
Objective: 65% of the students would score a 3 or above on the assessment (6 or above in Psychology).
The sociology assessment was given to sections 02, 04 and 08 of SOC 210: Introduction to Sociology in the Spring of 2001.
The results showed that 85% of the Sociology students scored a 3 or above on their response.
The psychology question was given to sections 08 and 15 of PSY 150: General
Psychology in the Spring of 2001.
Sixty-seven percent of the Psychology students scored a six or above on a ten question quiz.
The history question was given sections 06, 10 and 13 of HIST 111: World Civilization I in the Spring of 2001.
Ninety-four percent of the History students scored a three or above on the question concerning the impact of the Black Death.
Sample assessment tools can be found in the Social Sciences section of the portfolio.

Goal:
The Objective:
Students will demonstrate comprehension of the major steps of the scientific method.
Natural Science faculty set the following objective:
Seventy Percent of students will earn a score of 60% or above on the assessment.
During the pilot test (Summer 2001), 46 students completed the assessment from three sections of BIO110 with the following results:
Percentage scoring 60% or above =
Percentage scoring 70% or above =
91.4% (n=42)
80.4% (n=37)
The percentage of students who answered each question correctly was as follows:
1.
61% of students answered it correctly
2.
90% of students answered it correctly
3.
94% of students answered it correctly
4.
92% of students answered it correctly
5.
81% of students answered it correctly
6.
68% of students answered it correctly
7.
74% of students answered it correctly
8.
92% of students answered it correctly
9.
72% of students answered it correctly
10.
72% of students answered it correctly

Goal:
Students will demonstrate knowledge of the humanities and critical skills in assessing cultural/artistic merit and significance.
Objective: At least 70% of students will score a 3 or higher on the humanities and fine arts assessment.
During the pilot test process, a sample of 18 students was tested in the Humanities
130 (Myth and Human Culture) course. Their assessment results were as follows:
1
2
4
1
10 3
11 5
6
7
8
9
3
4
5
5
4
1
3
4
3
5
12 4
13 2
14 2
15 4
16 5
17 4
18 1
Of those tested, 13 (72.2%) scored a three or higher on the humanities and fine arts assessment.
The Humanities Goal was Met.