Weber State University   

Mathematics

Revised 11/30/01

Assessment Plan

Assessment is an ongoing process in the Mathematics Department. Externally, broad reviews are conducted regularly by the Board of Regents and by Northwest, ABET, and NCATE accrediting agencies. These generally include reviews of departmental offerings, course content, textbooks, and examinations. In these reviews experienced professionals usually compare our program with others and provide the department with reports detailing its perceived strengths and weaknesses. Other programs also undergo similar external reviews. Based on all these reviews and in consultation with client departments, the Mathematics Department makes necessary changes for improvement of its program.

Internally, the Mathematics Department reviews its entire curriculum periodically, has regular dialogs with client departments, re-evaluates textbooks annually, keeps current on national curriculum trends, and studies course grade distributions from time to time. In addition, faculty share and review examinations, regularly collect student evaluations of teaching, and undergo annual reviews for merit. Faculty also consult with local school districts, graduate schools, and employers on an irregular but frequent basis.

Data Collection

In data collection a balance must be reached between the cost (time, money, etc.) and usefulness of the data while not imposing unreasonable demands on faculty, university resources, students and graduates.  There is no single nationally accepted method, such as standardized testing, for overall assessment.  While the core topics of most courses are the same nationally, there is no consensus with regard to the importance or depth of coverage of each topic.  Any national comparison would be further complicated by differing entrance standards and missions of universities.

Many evaluation criteria cannot be quantified with a simple numerical scale. For example, there is no national ranking for textbooks. Thus, while the Mathematics Department does review textbooks annually, and uses those reviews to select high quality textbooks, little would be gained from further analysis. This is also true for many other collection/evaluation methods listed below.

The following are feasible means of data collection which can lead to a meaningful assessment.  Much of these data could be collected through one instrument, such as a survey, while others have been studied for many years.

• College Graduation Exit Survey
• Post-graduate Survey
• Input from Client Departments
• Feedback from General Education Assessment
• Textbook Evaluation
• Exam Evaluation
• Distribution of Grades in Mathematics Courses
• Distribution of Grades in Client Courses
• Student Research and Contests Results
• Standardized Test Results (GRE, etc.)
• Employment Rates (immediate and in the future)
• Graduate School Acceptance Rate
• Graduate Degrees Earned
• Classroom Observations of Student Teachers
• Profile of Entering Students

To draw accurate conclusions it will be necessary that the data sets be sufficiently large, be from target populations, and be reliable.  In order to generate larger data sets, in some instances groups like majors, minors, and client students, will be lumped together, while in others, such as graduate acceptance rate, the data will be accumulated over several years.  For accurate targeting it will be necessary to subdivide some groups, like minors, teaching minors and elementary mathematics endorsements.  Finally, the surveys and their results should also be analyzed for unintended biases and reliability of data.  The Mathematics Department faculty propose to do the following:

• Establish an address file of graduates.
• Put together and then administer, over time, one or more questionnaires that could be used in classroom surveys, exit interviews, post-graduate surveys, etc.  These questionnaires will inquire about results of standardized tests, acceptance to graduate school, curriculum strengths and weaknesses, obtaining employment, quality of job training, obtaining advanced degrees, teaching effectiveness, etc.
• Study the results of general education assessment and then respond in appropriate ways.
• Ask the administration to frequently provide all departments the following information.
  • Grade distributions in all classes.
  • Summaries of employer comments on WSU's perceived strengths and weaknesses.
  • Profiles of entering students.

Assessment Grid

The following grid states how and at what level of effectiveness (High, Medium, or Low) the data can be used in assessment of the following student learning outcomes:

1. Mathematics majors should gain a substantive knowledge and comprehension of the major ideas in the core areas of their fields of study (pure mathematics, applied mathematics, mathematics teaching).
2. All mathematics majors should learn a fundamental set of skills that will enable them to succeed in an ever changing world, including problem solving and independent learning, technology and communication.
3. Students pursuing Mathematics minors, Mathematics Teaching minors, or Elementary Mathematics Endorsements should be able to effectively apply appropriate mathematical ideas and/or teaching approaches in their field.
4. Mathematics service courses should meet the overall varied needs of client departments.  Students in these courses should obtain the required mathematical knowledge.

*M: Mathematics Minor, TM: Mathematics Teaching Minor, ME: Elementary Mathematics Endorsements
**PS&IL: Problem Solving and Independent Learning

Mission Statement / Student Learning Outcomes / Curriculum Grid / Results of Assessment / Contact Person