Kingsborough Community College Assessment 

The APR process is an essential part of KCC’s ongoing efforts to ensure the educational mission is being met through the delivery of academic programs. The primary goal of the APR process is to provide faculty and staff the opportunity to reflect upon the content of their programs, curricular delivery, and student success. As a result of participating in the program review process, faculty will:

• Assess the quality and effectiveness of academic programs;
• Identify program strength and opportunities for improvement;
• Develop short-term and long-term goals and objectives; and
• Establish program action plans and strategies for continuous improvement.

The APR process has five stages:

• Preparation (Summer)
• Writing self-study (Fall/Winter)
• External review (Spring)
• Development of an action plan (Summer)
• Implementation (years following the external review and until the subsequent self-study)

APRs are conducted in clusters, with similar programs conducting their APRs in the same year. The clusters are:

• Cluster 1: Health Services
• Cluster 2: Human Services
• Cluster 3: Math and Science
• Cluster 4: Business
• Cluster 5: Liberal Arts
• Cluster 6: Communication, Fine and Performing Arts

Programs can use the Academic Program Review template to help guide their reports. The Office of Academic Affairs also provides some common language for portions of the report related to common curriculum or resources (e.g., General Education).

For questions about the Academic Program Review (APR) process, contact Amanda Kalin, Director of Curriculum Development and Program Planning, at Amanda.Kalin@kbcc.cuny.edu.

Assessment of Student Learning in academic programs is a key component of the Academic Program Review process, as it ensures that the program is successfully providing students with the knowledge and skills they need when they enter the workforce or continue their academic career. When conducting program assessment, the general process is:

1. Develop Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
2. Create a curriculum map, which outlines where in the program students will gain the knowledge and skills laid out in the Program Learning Outcomes
3. Assess each Program Learning Outcome
4. Use the results of the assessment to identify gaps or overlap in the curriculum and ensure that students are meeting the PLOs

In order to ensure that each PLO is assessed in between Academic Program Reviews, programs should be conducting an assessment project each academic year, assessing at least one PLO in one course each year.

The Assessment Liaison for the program will work with instructor(s) of the course(s) to identify an assignment that best assesses the target PLO, and develop the method for assessing it (e.g., developing a rubric for assessing an essay, lab report, presentation, discussion board post, or other similar artifact, or developing a set of multiple-choice exam questions to assess content knowledge).

The Multi-Year Assessment Plan Templates (Template and Template for Programs with Concentrations) were developed to help programs identify which courses will be assessed and when. The Program Assessment Report Template (Template and Instructions) can help create a record of assessment methods and results and guide discussions around next steps.

A Note on Concentrations: For programs that contain concentrations, each concentration should have 1-2 Concentration Learning Outcomes in addition to the Program Learning Outcomes. The purpose of these LOs is to identify what the students will know or be able to do in addition to the base PLOs. The Concentration LOs can be added to the Program-level Curriculum Map and assessment plan.

For questions about annual assessment of Student Learning Outcomes, contact Dr. Colleen Davy, Dean of Institutional Research, Assessment, and Effectiveness, at Colleen.Davy@kbcc.cuny.edu.