City College of San Francisco - California Competes

THEME II
I. Overview
The movement to infuse student learning outcomes into every aspect of the evaluation of institutional
integrity and effectiveness has provoked responses in higher education across the state and the nation
ranging from enthusiastic affirmation to outright rejection. The dialog around student learning outcomes
(SLOs) at City College of San Francisco has also ranged from passionate advocacy to strong skepticism.
CCSF faculty are dedicated to excellence in teaching, a value that is promoted through a rich environment
and strong commitment to student success. That said, the question of student learning outcomes assessment
has prompted a great deal of discussion that has revealed a significant diversity of views within the
faculty. Since 2000, many discussions about SLOs have occurred at meetings of the Executive Council
of the Academic Senate. During the listening sessions and dialogs about the draft Self Study, differing
perspectives and concerns have been shared regarding the role and value of student learning outcomes
assessment. Stated concerns included such critical questions as, “Might the SLO paradigm require that
we teach to the test”; “Does the SLO model emphasize the accountability approach of the business world
instead of the student-centered approach of the academic environment”; “Are SLOs more relevant and
appropriate for vocational/technical skill-based courses and less applicable to some liberal arts courses”;
“Does the emphasis on SLOs at the course level infringe upon the professional rights and responsibilities
of the faculty in the classroom”; “What about academic freedom … is that statement of principles being
eroded” Faculty agree that there is a need to communicate and educate all faculty so that they can better
understand the SLO movement and how it might be implemented within an institution like CCSF.
Therefore, the College community expects more faculty-driven dialog about student learning outcomes.
As work on SLOs broadens, the established dialog regarding student success will assist in integrating the
expectations of the new accreditation standards into the traditions of the College.
To that end and setting the stage for this dialog, Chancellor Philip Day, in his Opening Day speech in
August 2005, noted that “… careful consideration of all that we have done to date has made it clear that
we need to build for the future by designing a College-wide plan to address the continued development,
implementation, and assessment of student learning outcomes.”
While the dialog around the assessment of student learning outcomes continues, CCSF has a strong
record of gathering data and using that information to improve student outcomes. Alexander Astin,
in Assessment for Excellence, The Philosophy and Practice of Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education,
notes that:
An institution’s assessment practices are a reflection of its values. In other words, the
values of an institution are revealed in the information about itself that it gathers and
pays attention to … assessment practices should further the basic aims and purposes
of our higher education institutions. 1
The essay that follows attempts to reflect the values of City College of San Francisco by highlighting
some of the information the College gathers and describing how it responds to it within the institutional
context. The essay has three sections. The first addresses the institutional context for student learning
outcomes at CCSF. It shows the linkages among the College’s Mission Statement, its major institutional
outcomes assessments, and selected examples of its efforts to assess and enhance outcomes. It demonstrates
that the College is committed to the improvement of student learning, and, while the role of
1 Astin, Alexander W. (1991) Assessment for Excellence, The Philosophy and Practice of Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education.
New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, p. 3.
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