2007 SCCC Outcomes Assessment Report

The Schenectady County Community College Outcomes Assessment Report was designed to help the College identify and confirm strengths and highlight areas in need of improvement. It is organized around eight mission (or goal) areas. The eight mission areas are: (1) Student Progress, (2) Workforce Development, (3) Transfer Preparation, (4) Access, (5) Educational Environment, (6) Community Outreach, (7) Learning Outcomes, and (8) Developmental Skills.

Within each mission area, there are multiple desired outcomes. The Outcomes Assessment Report includes one or more measures (or indicators) for each desired outcome. For most indicators, results are summarized for multiple years to facilitate identification of trends over time.

Trends are important. Increases or decreases in indicators from year to year can occur for many reasons, but sustained changes in indicators generally can be assumed to result from changes in institutional practices, absent other plausible explanations. This year’s Outcomes Assessment Report, our sixth, indicates that changes in institutional practices have resulted in greater student satisfaction with the information and services the College provides and lends credence to the notion that changes in curriculum and instruction resulting from the College’s general education assessment related initiatives may be yielding sought-after pedagogical results.

In addition to observed changes in measured outcomes resulting from changes in institutional practices, recent changes in the Outcomes Assessment Report itself will hopefully help to contextualize some of the indicator information provide therein. One such change involves including student goal information in sections of the report where goal information is relevant. When interpreting the meaning of graduation and transfer rates, for example, it’s helpful to know whether students indicated an intention to graduate and/or transfer when they began their academic careers at SCCC, or whether they simply enrolled at SCCC to enhance their careers. Including such context-relevant information hopefully makes this report more meaningful.

If you have any questions about the information presented in this Outcomes Assessment Report, please do not hesitate to contact me.

The Outcomes Accessment Report is in an Adobe Acrobat .pdf format. If you are unable to view .pdf files after clicking on the link to the Outcomes Assessment Report please download Adobe's free Acrobat Reader by clicking on this link: Free Adobe Acrobat Reader

Stan Strauss
Associate Dean for Planning and Development