DAPS - Student Learning

Key Indicator B1. Student Learning

Since 1994, with the founding of the University Studies general education program, Portland State has invested central resources in student learning assessment (SLA). Further investment came in 1999, with the initiation of then-President Daniel O. Bernstine’s Assessment Initiative. Since then, SLA at Portland State has benefitted from central planning, with all academic units participating and some doing ground-breaking work that has received national attention.

Responsibility for SLA involves several offices. The Office of Institutional Research and Planning (OIRP) maintains a central SLA database. Most SLA staff resides in the Center for Academic Excellence (CAE). University Studies has a .5 FTE SLA staff member who supports critical SLA projects. The Dean of Undergraduate Studies is involved as the CAE and University Studies report there. Accordingly, reports on diversity SLA comes from disparate quarters.

For this DAPS website, ODE has requested reports describing the following.

• From the CAE: Reports on SLA projects in the academic departments that present student performance data on indicators of learning related to diversity goals. To date, we have received two statements of curricular philosophies and practices that define the context for the collection of such student performance data.
• Reports on SLA projects that present student performance data on indicators of learning related to diversity goals. To date, we have received a report from the Graduate School of Education on evaluations of student teachers, based on diversity elements in their state-required work samples and on observations of their classroom performance.

There are many diversity-related SLA projects being pursued, or having been completed, on our campus. ODE will be happy to receive descriptions of these projects.

Note: Commentary by Martha Balshem. Please e-mail comments to diversity@pdx.edu.