Texas Tech University is in compliance with Comprehensive Standard 3.5.1.

The competencies associated with each of the Core Curriculum areas are listed in the 2004-2005 university catalog on pages 46-49 (http://www.depts.ttu.edu/officialpublications/catalog/AcademicsCore.html).
They are summarized below:

A.   Communication

1.  Written: Students are able to communicate effectively in clear and correct prose in a style appropriate to the subject, occasion, and audience.

2.  Oral: Students acquire the basic skills to speak and listen effectively and critically.

B.   Mathematics: Students are quantitatively literate and are able to apply basic mathematical tools in the solution of real-world problems.  

C.   Natural (Laboratory) Science: Students are able to understand, construct, and evaluate relationships in the natural sciences and understand the bases for building and testing theories. 

D.   Technology and Applied Science: Students understand how profoundly scientific and technological developments affect society and the environment.

E.   Humanities: Students practice critical analysis and appreciate the role of the humanities as fundamental to the health and survival of any society.

F.   Visual and Performing Arts: Students understand the human condition and human cultures, especially in relation to behaviors, ideas, and values expressed in works of human imagination and thought. 

G.   Social and Behavioral Sciences: Students understand how behavioral scientists discover, describe, and explain the behaviors and interactions among individuals, groups, institutions, events, and ideas.

Additional specific competencies are left to the discretion of the individual departments which offer a course that satisfies a core curriculum requirement.

With the exception of the Technology Applied Science area which is distinctive to Texas Tech University, these competencies parallel those laid out by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in its statement titled: Core Curriculum: Assumptions and Defining Characteristics, on the THECB web site (http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/Ctc/ip/core11_00/assumption.htm).

Beyond these objectives, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board has established a list of competencies that core curriculum courses should help students attain. These competencies are also contained in Core Curriculum: Assumptions and Defining Characteristics. These competencies include communication (reading, writing, speaking, listening), critical thinking, and computer literacy. In addition, the THECB suggests that core courses should be designed to help students attain eight “perspectives”.

1. Establish broad and multiple perspectives on the individual in relationship to the larger society and world in which he or she lives, and to understand the responsibilities of living in a culturally and ethnically diversified world;
    

2. Stimulate a capacity to discuss and reflect upon individual, political, economic, and social aspects of life in order to understand ways in which to be a responsible member of society;
    

3. Recognize the importance of maintaining health and wellness;
    

4. Develop a capacity to use knowledge of how technology and science affect their lives;
    

5. Develop personal values for ethical behavior;
    

6. Develop the ability to make aesthetic judgments;
    

7. Use logical reasoning in problem solving; and
    

8. Integrate knowledge and understand the interrelationships of the scholarly disciplines.

The university evaluates the courses in the Core Curriculum through regular student course evaluations. In addition, the Core Curriculum Committee, which has representation from all academic schools and colleges, meets monthly during the academic year and reviews new additions to the Core Curriculum to insure that they meet the objectives established for inclusion in the Core Curriculum. All courses in the Core Curriculum are also screened periodically to insure that they continue to meet the Core Curriculum objectives as stated in the university catalog.

The university is required to report periodically to the THECB on its core curriculum. The first such report is due on October 10, 2004 and will contain information relating to evaluation of the achievement of university and state mandated competencies. A copy of this report will be available for review after October 10 in the Office of the Provost, AD 104. This report is based on a comprehensive assessment that attempted to reach all students who had completed 90 hours of instruction or more in the university. Two surveys were employed, one based on the entire core curriculum and the other covering only the mathematics component. The response rates were 17% and 20% of possible participants respectively, a rather high response rate. (Students were induced to participate in the survey by the offer of a drawing that would randomly select three students to receive a one-semester tuition waver.)

All participants completed a 36-question instrument that measured their academic motivation and efficiency. In addition, an essay question was drafted for each area in the core curriculum based on the core curriculum instructional goals stated in the catalog (and above in this response). As noted above, half the participants completed this survey. The other half of the respondents received only one essay question, focusing on the mathematics area because that area has a high student impact value. The essay questions were printed and they are being evaluated by two university faculty members based on a rubric that includes general grammar and organization as well as content mastery elements.

The instrument was tested in two previous projects and found to be valid. The achievement component of the instrument specifically targets academic skill efficacy and academic ability efficacy. Standard information such as grade point averages and college entrance examination scores are available for the participants in the survey and an identifier allows results of the essay questions to be matched to these values. This will allow the university to determine the extent to which entrance exam scores and grade point averages predict essay performance. In addition, the essay responses will be analyzed to determine the extent to which learning objectives are being met. This analysis will provide a basis for identifying core curriculum areas that might need improvement in content or instruction.

It is the intent of the university that core curriculum assessment will become continuous and the instrument described above will be administered on an annual basis. In addition, plans are being formulated to develop other methods of assessment such as small focus groups and creating measures of skill development.

The efforts of the General Education Committee to monitor core curriculum courses to insure they meet the competencies of the general knowledge base represents a first step in the process of assessment. The core curriculum assessment instruments will allow for evaluation of how well individual courses and instructors achieve the goals of the particular area they serve. This should make it possible for the university to have greater confidence that courses included in the core curriculum achieve its learning objectives and to make necessary changes in the event they appear to be required.