Assessment Is Wicked Good #CurriculumThatCounts
Program assessment asks whether each program’s graduates achieve the Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) the program promises. At GCC, we align course work to PLOs, gather evidence of student learning, and use the PAIR cycle—Prepare, Assess, Intervene, Reassess—to document change and improvement over time.
Program assessment at a glance
Curriculum mapping. Faculty align course competencies to each PLO and mark a course’s role as Introduces, Reinforces, or Meets the outcome (beginning with required courses).
Integrated assessment. All courses continue to be assessed at least once in the three-year cycle, now within their programs; each program is expected to assess at least three PLOs during the cycle.
Reporting & review. Faculty submit one Assessment Report per project; results flow to each program’s spreadsheet for program-level analysis and shared review.
In this section of the GAUCHO site, you will find:
Program Assessment. Our PLO assessment timeline.
Program Outcomes. Definitions of course competencies, course learning outcomes (CLOs), and program learning outcomes (PLOs); where to find competencies and PLOs.
Program Report. Past-cycle departmental results—submissions, collaboration, intervention highlights—and early program assessment status—100+ maps, PAIR launch, and next steps.
Faculty Guide to Assessing CLOs/PLOs. Step-by-step resources for program mapping, planning course and program assessment, and submitting the Assessment Report form.
Fall 2018 – Spring 2021 — Departmental Assessment Cycle 1 🗂️
Significant redesign of course assessment with a shift from annual checks to completing at least one detailed full assessment cycle (assess → intervene → reassess) for every course.
Academic Assessment Plans were created to summarize course reports. A mid-cycle update to the reporting form added required fields (e.g., Plans for Intervention and Use of Student Learning Evidence) to better document improvement.
Fall 2021 – Spring 2024 — Departmental Assessment Cycle 2 📊
Updated reporting form introduced a Plan–Do–Study–Act framework and integrated program and institutional learning outcome alignment as part of revisions following HLC reaffirmation feedback.
Public summaries continued in Academic Assessment Plans, with the form adding structured Act documentation (intervention description, checklist, and learning-improvement status).
Fall 2024 – Spring 2025 — Design Year & Detailed Mapping 🗺️
Course assessment cycle paused to design integrated program assessment.
100+ program maps created as faculty aligned course competencies to PLOs and identified each required course as Introduces, Reinforces, or Meets.
Fall 2025 — Program Assessment Launch 🚀
Start of the integrated course + program assessment model using PAIR (Prepare, Assess, Intervene, Reassess), a more intuitive framework than Plan–Do–Study–Act.
Assessment Report form significantly revised to support integrated assessment and streamline submission-to-spreadsheet reporting.
All courses will continue to assess at least once in the new three-year cycle with each program assessing at least three PLOs aligned to course outcomes.
Fall 2025 – Spring 2028 — Prepare, Assess, Intervene, Reassess (PAIR) 🔄
Courses and programs will launch new PAIR projects; initial assessments begin in Year 1, interventions will follow, and reassessments will be scheduled for Years 2–3.
Beginning Fall 2026, General Education assessment will be more strongly integrated into the course + program process with the launch of the Reimagined Arizona General Education Curriculum (AGEC).
Updated 08/2025