B.S. in Criminal Justice Program Assessment Report for Academic Year 2016-2017
Assessment Committee: Jennifer Wareham, Marianka Holloway, Jim Geistman, Charles Klahm, and Laura Starzynski
Dear criminal justice B.S. program students and supporters,
In our efforts to continually improve the B.S. in criminal justice for our students, the criminal justice faculty have been dedicating time and effort to understanding our students' performance.
Specifically, in fall 2016 and winter 2017, the Criminal Justice Assessment Committee collected data on five important learning outcomes of the B.S. in criminal justice program:
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Students can explain the general nature of crime and criminality.
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Students can identify the separate components of the criminal justice system and understand the interrelationships between these components.
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Students can describe the major theoretical explanations of crime and criminality.
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Students can describe the scientific method typically used in the social sciences.
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Students can describe constitutional rights and judicial procedure. These outcomes reflect part of our AY16-17 action plan.
Information about our program's success at helping students to achieve these goals comes from a review and assessment of survey data collected among new criminal justice majors in the introductory course (CRJ 1010) and graduating seniors in fall 2017. The selected students were surveyed about their knowledge of content covered in the core curriculum in the major specifically addressing the five aforementioned learning outcomes. The results of the survey indicate, on average, seniors in the major possess a higher level of knowledge reflecting the five learning outcomes than students who are new to the major. However, the findings also suggest there is room for improvement in knowledge retention among our seniors in the major.
As part of our 2017-2018 assessment work, we will continue to assess the learning outcomes for the B.S. program and expand the learning outcomes to include diversity.