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SSRC to Release Initial Findings of College Learning Assessment Study

The Social Science Research Council will announce the initial findings of a major longitudinal study of college student learning, the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) Longitudinal Project, on Saturday, November 8.

? Download the full CLA report (PDF, 968kb, 34 pages)

“In the midst of increasing pressures on colleges to demonstrate how well students are learning, we must pay particular attention to differences in the learning outcomes for different groups of students,” said SSRC program director Richard Arum, who is one of the project's principal investigators. “Our study is tracking over 2,300 students at 24 higher educational institutions from freshman to senior year, measuring the extent to which their critical thinking, analytical reasoning and written communication—as measured by the Collegiate Learning Assessment—have improved. We are also looking for patterns of inequality associated with disadvantaged groups of students.”

Thus far, two tests have taken place: at the beginning of the students’ freshman years (Fall 2005) and at the end of their sophomore years (Spring 2007). Initial key findings from this and other supplemental data include:

  • Institutional differences in student learning are great; 29 percent of variation in longitudinal growth in CLA performance occurs across schools.
  • Student perceptions of high faculty expectations are strongly associated with improvement in CLA performance.
  • Non-white students, including Asian students, start college with lower CLA scores and, with the exception of Hispanic students, progress less on this measure during the first two years of college than white students.
  • Institutional differences account for approximately one-third of the gaps in longitudinal CLA performance between African-American and white students.
  • Students concentrating in math, science, social sciences and humanities have higher levels of growth in reasoning and communication (as measured by CLA) than students in education, human services or business.

The study is the result of a collaboration among the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the Pathways to College Network (PCN) and the Council for Aid to Education (CAE). The findings will be announced at a conference convened at the Palmer House Hilton Hotel in Chicago.

? Download conference agenda (PDF, 52kb)

Available for Interviews

Three educational specialists, who have been closely involved in the project since its inception, are available for interviews to discuss study findings:

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Published on: Friday, November 07, 2008