Evidence of Learning: Applying the Collegiate Learning Assessment to Improve Teaching and Learning in the Liberal Arts College Experience
The CLA is developed by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE) and was officially launched in 2004. It is one of the first testing instruments to measure student learning directly by capturing the contribution of the institution to students’ cognitive development. The test provides a standardized measure of higher order skills and competencies that are often aligned with the general education goals of the undergraduate curriculum: critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and written communication. The CIC/CLA consortium institutions are among the first in the nation to pilot this tool. This report describes important lessons that merged from the consortial experience as the member institutions charted into this new territory. The major topics in the report include:
- The importance of campus leadership
- The variety of CLA experiences
- The challenge of using the CLA
- Future directions