| CLA: Returning to Learning |
The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) offers an authentic approach to
the improvement of teaching and learning in higher education through a
continuous improvement model, and recognizes faculty as central actors in
educational improvement efforts. The CLA assists faculty, department chairs,
school administrators and others interested in programmatic change to
improve teaching and learning, particularly with respect to strengthening higher
order skills.
The CLA helps institutions improve undergraduate education through
assessment, professional development, best practices and collaboration.
There are two programmatic areas that support educational improvement: CLA
Assessment Services and CLA Education.
CLA Assessment Services
CLA Assessment Services provide a means for measuring an institution's
contribution to the development of key higher order competencies, including
the effects of changes to curriculum and pedagogy. To gauge summative
performance authentically, the CLA presents realistic problems that require
students to analyze complex materials and determine the relevance to the task
and credibility. Students' written responses to the tasks are evaluated to
assess their abilities to think critically, reason analytically, solve problems and
communicate clearly and cogently. Scores are aggregated to the institutional
level to provide a signal to the institution about how their students as a whole
are performing. CAE senior researchers and board members see the
promise of the performance assessment paradigm as a means to improve
education.
This signaling quality of the CLA allows institutions to benchmark where they
stand and how much progress their students have made relative to the
progress of students at other colleges. Yet, the CLA is not about ranking
institutions. Rather, it is about highlighting differences between them that can
lead to improvements in teaching and learning.
This approach recognizes that faculty are the ultimate stakeholder of the
assessment. Unless there is formative value, faculty will not take any
assessment seriously. Appropriate summative analyses--for instance, by
comparing institutional performance--is necessary in order to give faculty and
administrators information they need to help frame a well grounded formative
assessment program.
We are now poised to embark on a new phase of the CLA, designed to further
assist teaching and learning improvement efforts. In so doing, we are pleased
to offer institutions and faculty members with multiple opportunities for
ensuring that the process of educational improvement can be seen as a
continuous and empowering endeavor.
CLA Education
CLA Education, which is being fully launched in the 2009-10 academic year, is
an innovative enterprise that offers programs explicitly designed to assist and
empower faculty. The two primary programs include: (a) Performance Task
Academies (where faculty members can learn more about the process of
creating and embedding their own performance based tasks within the
classroom) and student and institutional diagnostic reporting (which provide
feedback to faculty to engage students in diagnostic conversations about their
critical thinking skills).
We could not have built the CLA without the participation and encouragement
of colleges and universities, nor without the support of foundations and leading
educational institutions. To date, over 500 institutions and 250,000 students
have participated in the CLA and over 1,000 individual faculty and
administrators have attended over 55 Performance Task Academies.
We invite you to learn more about the CLA programmatic offerings by visiting
the links to the right.
the improvement of teaching and learning in higher education through a
continuous improvement model, and recognizes faculty as central actors in
educational improvement efforts. The CLA assists faculty, department chairs,
school administrators and others interested in programmatic change to
improve teaching and learning, particularly with respect to strengthening higher
order skills.
The CLA helps institutions improve undergraduate education through
assessment, professional development, best practices and collaboration.
There are two programmatic areas that support educational improvement: CLA
Assessment Services and CLA Education.
CLA Assessment Services
CLA Assessment Services provide a means for measuring an institution's
contribution to the development of key higher order competencies, including
the effects of changes to curriculum and pedagogy. To gauge summative
performance authentically, the CLA presents realistic problems that require
students to analyze complex materials and determine the relevance to the task
and credibility. Students' written responses to the tasks are evaluated to
assess their abilities to think critically, reason analytically, solve problems and
communicate clearly and cogently. Scores are aggregated to the institutional
level to provide a signal to the institution about how their students as a whole
are performing. CAE senior researchers and board members see the
promise of the performance assessment paradigm as a means to improve
education.
This signaling quality of the CLA allows institutions to benchmark where they
stand and how much progress their students have made relative to the
progress of students at other colleges. Yet, the CLA is not about ranking
institutions. Rather, it is about highlighting differences between them that can
lead to improvements in teaching and learning.
This approach recognizes that faculty are the ultimate stakeholder of the
assessment. Unless there is formative value, faculty will not take any
assessment seriously. Appropriate summative analyses--for instance, by
comparing institutional performance--is necessary in order to give faculty and
administrators information they need to help frame a well grounded formative
assessment program.
We are now poised to embark on a new phase of the CLA, designed to further
assist teaching and learning improvement efforts. In so doing, we are pleased
to offer institutions and faculty members with multiple opportunities for
ensuring that the process of educational improvement can be seen as a
continuous and empowering endeavor.
CLA Education
CLA Education, which is being fully launched in the 2009-10 academic year, is
an innovative enterprise that offers programs explicitly designed to assist and
empower faculty. The two primary programs include: (a) Performance Task
Academies (where faculty members can learn more about the process of
creating and embedding their own performance based tasks within the
classroom) and student and institutional diagnostic reporting (which provide
feedback to faculty to engage students in diagnostic conversations about their
critical thinking skills).
We could not have built the CLA without the participation and encouragement
of colleges and universities, nor without the support of foundations and leading
educational institutions. To date, over 500 institutions and 250,000 students
have participated in the CLA and over 1,000 individual faculty and
administrators have attended over 55 Performance Task Academies.
We invite you to learn more about the CLA programmatic offerings by visiting
the links to the right.
For additional information about the CLA, we
encourage you to review the following:
Returning to Learning in an Age of Assessment
Dr. Roger Benjamin's monograph about the CLA,
collecting numerous thoughts on our efforts and framing
them in their appropriate context. A shorter synopsis of
the monograph is also available.
CLA Lumina Longitudinal Study Summary
Findings
Dr. Stephen Klein, the principal investigator of the
Lumina-funded CLA Longitudinal Study (2005-2009),
summarizes its procedures and findings. In particular, he
examines the relationship between the cross-sectional and
longitudinal approaches to measuring freshman-to-senior
gains on the CLA.
CLA in the Classroom
CAE Statement Regarding OECD AHELO Project
Architecture of the CLA Tasks (Updated)
Describes the process that goes into creating and scoring
CLA and CWRA tasks and provides examples of varying
student performance.
CLA Scoring Criteria
CWRA Scoring Criteria
Sample CLA Measures
Sample CLA Institutional Report
Sample CLA Student Data File
Facilitates merging of CLA data with other locally
collected variables, analyzing relationships between CLA
variables, and disaggregating data into sub-groups (for
institutions that choose to in-depth sample).
CLA Technical FAQs
CCLA (Community College Learning Assessment)
CWRA (College and Work Readiness
Assessment)
For High Schools
Sample CWRA Institutional Report
Library of Articles, White Papers and News
Clippings About the CLA
CAE Board Statement on Appropriate Uses of the
CLA
encourage you to review the following:
Returning to Learning in an Age of Assessment
Dr. Roger Benjamin's monograph about the CLA,
collecting numerous thoughts on our efforts and framing
them in their appropriate context. A shorter synopsis of
the monograph is also available.
CLA Lumina Longitudinal Study Summary
Findings
Dr. Stephen Klein, the principal investigator of the
Lumina-funded CLA Longitudinal Study (2005-2009),
summarizes its procedures and findings. In particular, he
examines the relationship between the cross-sectional and
longitudinal approaches to measuring freshman-to-senior
gains on the CLA.
CLA in the Classroom
CAE Statement Regarding OECD AHELO Project
Architecture of the CLA Tasks (Updated)
Describes the process that goes into creating and scoring
CLA and CWRA tasks and provides examples of varying
student performance.
CLA Scoring Criteria
CWRA Scoring Criteria
Sample CLA Measures
Sample CLA Institutional Report
Sample CLA Student Data File
Facilitates merging of CLA data with other locally
collected variables, analyzing relationships between CLA
variables, and disaggregating data into sub-groups (for
institutions that choose to in-depth sample).
CLA Technical FAQs
CCLA (Community College Learning Assessment)
CWRA (College and Work Readiness
Assessment)
For High Schools
Sample CWRA Institutional Report
Library of Articles, White Papers and News
Clippings About the CLA
CAE Board Statement on Appropriate Uses of the
CLA
If you have questions about signing up, we
encourage you to visit our enrollment page.
You may also contact Chris Jackson at (212)
217-0845 or cjackson@cae.org.
encourage you to visit our enrollment page.
You may also contact Chris Jackson at (212)
217-0845 or cjackson@cae.org.
Welcome readers of Academically Adrift. To learn more about our
response to that publication, please read our press release.
response to that publication, please read our press release.