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TCNJ Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) |
Overview
The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) is a nationally normed assessment which measures students’ critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem-solving, and written communication abilities. Students are asked to perform “real-life” tasks such as preparing a memo or policy recommendation given several documents and/or crafting essay responses to simple prompts or more complex passages to identify the weak points in the argument. More information about the CLA is available from the Council for Aid to Education.
Participating students receive individual scores that indicate how they performed on each part of the test as well as how they compare to their peers at TCNJ and nationwide.
Academic Year 2007-08
In the 2007-08 Academic Year TCNJ piloted the cross-sectional analysis version of the CLA. One hundred twenty six (126) first year students participated in Fall 2007, and 50 seniors took part in Spring 2008. In both testing cycles students were initially identified by random sample, and invited to participate. To encourage additional participation, several faculty agreed to require students enrolled in their courses to participate.
Testing took place in designated computer labs across the campus, and tests were administered by staff or faculty with student proctors assisting.
The full report with results of the Fall 2007 freshmen testing are available on-line by clicking here.
The senior scores and report will be posted once they are received in late Summer, 2008.
