California State University, Northridge College Portrait

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Students
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Admissions
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College Costs & Financial Aid
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Classes and Campus Life
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Student Experiences
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Majors, Graduation and Next Steps
See which majors are most popular at CSUN and what recent graduates plan to do after earning their bachelor's degree.
Student Success & Progress
Discover how many students who start at CSUN finish their bachelor's degree and how long it takes.
Student Learning Outcomes
Figure out what learning gains to expect in critical thinking, writing, and other important subjects at CSUN.
Public Good

Student Learning at California State University, Northridge

All colleges and universities use multiple approaches to measure student learning. Many of these are specific to particular disciplines, many are coordinated with accrediting agencies, and many are based on outcomes after students have graduated.

Assessment influences all aspects of the curriculum at Cal State Northridge. Since 2006, departments and programs have submitted annual reports on how well students have mastered the learning outcomes integral to their degree programs. The data summarized in these reports also serve to highlight gaps in the curriculum that need filling. At the university level, student progress is tracked on a term-by-term basis, providing a reliable means of determining key continuation, graduation, and persistence rates for various groups of students. In addition, tests such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment are administered to freshmen and seniors. The results generated by the CLA and other national initiatives are combined with information from the university’s multiple databases to inform periodic reports designed to provide insight into the university’s success in enabling its diverse students to graduate within a reasonable time period.

Learning Assessment Examples

Pilot Project to Measure Core Learning Outcomes

Colleges and universities participating in the College Portrait measure the typical improvement in students' abilities to think, reason, and write using one of three tests. This is part of a 4-year pilot project to better understand and compare what students learn between their freshman and senior years at different colleges and universities.

As the pilot project comes to a close, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of the pilot project within the College Portrait and to disclose the results to the public. All VSA participating institutions are encouraged to report their results; CSUN reported results from one of the VSA-approved value-added SLO assessments below. Institutions who have not posted SLO results from one of the three VSA approved value-added pilot measures by the end of September 2012 are required to report their results here.

Results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment

The Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) measures critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and written communication using a performance task and an analytic writing task. The scores from the tasks are reported separately below.

Test Administration Process

Test Information

Performance Task Results for First-time, Full-time Students

The increase in learning on the performance task is above what would be expected at an institution testing students of similar academic abilities.

Freshman Score: 957
Senior Score: 1216
CLA score range: 400 to no maximum score.

Average EAA scores for tested students
Freshman Score: 860
Senior Score: 1010

Analytic Writing Task Results for First-time, Full-time Students

The increase in learning on the analytic writing task is above what would be expected at an institution testing students of similar academic abilities.

Freshman Score: 963
Senior Score: 1175
CLA score range: 400 to no maximum score.