| 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 400 institutions and 165,000 students have
participated in the CLA and over 460 individual faculty and administrators have attended
over 18 Performance Task Academies.
We invite you to learn more about the CLA programmatic offerings by visiting the links to
the right. You may also wish to click on "The Latest News" button to access the most
up-to date information, including upcoming web conference trainings, Performance
Task Academies and recent publications.
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 400 institutions and 165,000 students have
participated in the CLA and over 460 individual faculty and administrators have attended
over 18 Performance Task Academies.
We invite you to learn more about the CLA programmatic offerings by visiting the links to
the right. You may also wish to click on "The Latest News" button to access the most
up-to date information, including upcoming web conference trainings, Performance
Task Academies and recent publications.
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.
Advancing Institutional Value-Added Score
Estimation
Dr. Jeffrey Steedle, CLA Measurement Scientist,
outlines enhancements to the CLA value-added
estimation model. The enhanced model, which
employs hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), will
be in use starting with the 09-10 CLA
administration.
CLA in the Classroom
CAE Statement Regarding OECD AHELO
Project
Architecture of the CLA
Describes the process that goes into creating and
scoring CLA Performance Tasks and provides
examples of varying student performance
Sample CLA Measures
Sample CLA Institutional Report
Sample CLA Student Level Data File
Facilitates the cross-referencing and correlation
of CLA scores with other locally collected
variables, as well as the disaggregation of
sub-group data 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
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.
Advancing Institutional Value-Added Score
Estimation
Dr. Jeffrey Steedle, CLA Measurement Scientist,
outlines enhancements to the CLA value-added
estimation model. The enhanced model, which
employs hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), will
be in use starting with the 09-10 CLA
administration.
CLA in the Classroom
CAE Statement Regarding OECD AHELO
Project
Architecture of the CLA
Describes the process that goes into creating and
scoring CLA Performance Tasks and provides
examples of varying student performance
Sample CLA Measures
Sample CLA Institutional Report
Sample CLA Student Level Data File
Facilitates the cross-referencing and correlation
of CLA scores with other locally collected
variables, as well as the disaggregation of
sub-group data 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
| Click the below button to access the most up-to-date information about the CLA; including upcoming web conference dates, Performance Task Academies, and recent publications. |
