| 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.
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.
CAE Statement Regarding OECD AHELO Project
Architecture of the CLA Tasks
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
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.
CAE Statement Regarding OECD AHELO Project
Architecture of the CLA Tasks
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
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.
enrollment page. You may also contact Chris Jackson at (212) 217-0845
or cjackson@cae.org.
CAE Pulse | Winter 2013
Meet CAE's Item Writers | Update
on CLA+ & CWRA+ | Voluntary
Support of Education (VSE) survey
results on 2012 college
contributions
Meet CAE's Item Writers | Update
on CLA+ & CWRA+ | Voluntary
Support of Education (VSE) survey
results on 2012 college
contributions
