University of Colorado Boulder College Portrait

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Students
Find out more about the characteristics of students who attend CU-Boulder.
Admissions
See how many students applied, accepted, and enrolled at CU-Boulder. Learn more about students’ high school preparation and test scores.
College Costs & Financial Aid
Learn about costs to attend CU-Boulder and how much financial aid is typically awarded.
College Cost Estimator
Estimate your cost to attend CU-Boulder in a few simple steps.
Classes and Campus Life
Learn more about professors, where students live, and campus safety at CU-Boulder.
Student Experiences
Discover ways to be actively involved in your education at CU-Boulder – inside and outside the classroom.
Majors, Graduation and Next Steps
See which majors are most popular at CU-Boulder and what recent graduates plan to do after earning their bachelor's degree.
Student Success & Progress
Discover how many students who start at CU-Boulder 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 CU-Boulder.

Student Learning at University of Colorado Boulder

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.

CU-Boulder has a long history of assessing undergraduate educational outcomes and pays serious attention to evidence concerning student learning, completion rates, satisfaction, and success after graduation. For more than two decades a campus-wide program has been in place to examine the quality and effectiveness of academic programs through examination of student learning. Major programs (e.g., history, chemistry) list knowledge and skills goals for their undergraduates in our catalog and use varying assessment methods to determine how well their goals are being met. These methods range from comparison of majors' performance on nationally standardized exams with national norms to direct evaluations by invited experts who rate student achievement. The programs use results from assessment activities to evaluate curricula, teaching, and course content; choose new faculty hires; plan improvements; and evaluate the effects of changes.

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 pilot project to better understand and compare what students learn between their freshman and senior years at different colleges and universities.

2010 - 11 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 at or near what would be expected at an institution testing students of similar academic abilities.

Freshman Score: 1197
Senior Score: 1318
CLA score range: 400 to no maximum score.

Average EEA scores for tested students
Freshman Score: 1236
Senior Score: 1255

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

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

Freshman Score: 1186
Senior Score: 1313
CLA score range: 400 to no maximum score.