The University of Texas at Dallas College Portrait

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Students
Find out more about the characteristics of students who attend UTD.
Admissions
See how many students applied, accepted, and enrolled at UTD. Learn more about students’ high school preparation and test scores.
College Costs & Financial Aid
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College Cost Estimator
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Classes and Campus Life
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Student Experiences
Discover ways to be actively involved in your education at UTD – inside and outside the classroom.
Majors, Graduation and Next Steps
See which majors are most popular at UTD and what recent graduates plan to do after earning their bachelor's degree.
Student Success & Progress
Discover how many students who start at UTD 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 UTD.

Student Learning at The University of Texas at Dallas

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.

For the past three years, UT Dallas has participated in the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) study, a standardized test purported to assess students’ performance on tasks that require them to think critically, reason analytically, solve realistic problems and write clearly. The results have shed some light on students’ general levels of critical thinking. Overall, the results reveal that, compared to national norms, UT Dallas freshmen and seniors achieve very high levels of critical thinking. By their senior year, roughly 75% of UT Dallas students scored above the national 80th percentile in critical thinking.

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.

2009-10 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: 1187
Senior Score: 1262
CLA score range: 400 to no maximum score.

Average EEA scores for tested students
Freshman Score: 1284
Senior Score: 1316

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: 1289
Senior Score: 1360
CLA score range: 400 to no maximum score.