Central to student learning at CSS is the academic and extracurricular experiences. Our assessment practices begin with the course or experience and move progressively through our students’ entire experience at the College of Saint Scholastica. Our purpose in the classroom and extracurricular experiences at CSS is encapsulated in our mission: to provide intellectual and moral preparation for responsible living and meaningful work. Our assessment process aims to design intentional learning outcomes for our students and develop meaningful measures to inform us how we are fulfilling our mission.

Collections of curricular and extracurricular experiences comprise programs, each of which leads students to a common goal. Program faculty and staff determine student learning outcomes and measures appropriate to their disciplinary field and student level. Programmatic assessment is continuously facilitated by program chairs in coordination with the Director of Assessment. Ongoing assessment results are used in program review to demonstrate successes and challenges in reaching student learning goals. Some programs also report their assessment work to external accreditors.

Our diverse program experiences together comprise the mission-based, comprehensive College of Saint Scholastica experience that we strive to provide for our students. At the institutional level, student learning is assessed using both direct and indirect measures. Five College Learning Outcomes (CLOs) have been developed by the faculty and staff CLO committee as follows:

• Inquire Deeply

• Solve Complex Problems

• Develop Cultural Fluency

• Communicate Clearly and Persuasively

• Serve and Lead through Benedictine Values

Direct measure assessment of these CLOs provides a snapshot of student performance at various stages in the CSS curriculum. CSS implements an assessment day model to score direct measures of student learning against modified AAC&U LEAP rubrics and in-house rubrics.

Indirect measure assessment of the CLOs is coordinated through the Office for Institutional Research. Indirect measures include a variety of surveys such as NSSE, Boynton, and others.