Guided by the accreditation principles developed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and the requirements of the Commonwealth of Virginia, Longwood University has actively engaged in assessing “college-level general education competencies and the extent to which students have attained them” (The Principles of Accreditation: Foundations for Quality Enhancement, SACSCOC, 2012, p.29). SACSCOC principle 3.4.10 also states that the “institution places primary responsibility for the content, quality, and effectiveness of the curriculum with its faculty.” (p. 29) The determination of learning outcomes and decisions on assessment methods and measures are the responsibility of faculty members with support for and coordination of the assessment process provided by the Office of Assessment and Institutional Research staff.

What are core competencies?
As defined by Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education (1999), these are “Areas of knowledge and skills that cross the bounds of academic discipline, degree major, and institutional mission to comprise basic competencies that should be achieved by all students completing a degree program at a Commonwealth institution of higher education - namely, *Information Technology Literacy, Written Communication, Quantitative Reasoning, Scientific Reasoning, Critical Thinking, and Oral Communication.”
(*choice of ITL or other competency identified by the institution)

Longwood's identified competency measures are:

• Quantitative Reasoning Competency (QRC)
• Written Communication Competency (WCC)
• Scientific Reasoning Competency (SRC)
• Critical Thinking Competency (CTC)
• Oral Communication Competency (OCC)
• Information Literacy Competency (ILC)

 

	Critical Thinking	Information Literacy	Written Communication	Quantitative Reasoning	Scientific Reasoning	Oral Communication
**2007-08				Value-added (Longitudinal) Pilot with Maple TA system and incoming freshmen (2010-11 - randomly selected Senior students who took the QR test in 2007 as freshman to be tested.)
2008-09			Value-added (Cross-sectional) Pilot of rubric & sampling method (ENG 150 & ENG 400 constructed response format)	(2010-11 - randomly selected Senior students who took the QR test in 2007 as freshman to be tested.)
2009-10			Full implementation	(2010-11 - randomly selected Senior students who took the QR test in 2007 as freshman to be tested.)	Value-added (Cross-sectional & Longitudinal) Pilot - randomly selected Freshmen & Senior LS and non-LS majors (CARS-SR test)
***2010-11	Competency-based Pilot of rubric & sampling method (WI course-embedded assignments)	Competency-based Pilot of rubric & sampling method (WI course-embedded assignments)	Competency-based Pilot of rubric & sampling method (WI course-embedded assignments)	Value-added(Cross-sectional) Pilot - randomly selected Freshmen & Senior students (CARS-QR test)	Full implementation
2011-12	Pilot continued with rubric revision	March pilot – revised rubric used with 2010-11 WI papers May – Full implementation ILC Rubric	Full implementation and determination of baseline WCC Rubric (PDF)	Full implementation	Assessment and comparison of 3 years of data SRC results analyzed by objective	Competency-based Pilot of rubric & sampling method (SI course-embedded assignments)
2012-13	Full implementation and determination of baseline CTC Rubric	Full implementation and determination of baseline	Assessment and baseline comparison	Assessment and comparison of 3 years of data Additional investigation of possible impact of a given discipline’s curriculum requirements on students’ QRC	Assessment and comparison of results by objective	Pilot continued with rubric revision (SI course-embedded assignments)

Notes:
**In accordance to SCHEV Guidelines for the Assessment of Student Learning (2007) and the SCHEV Assessment Implementation Plan
***SCHEV Virginia Public Higher Education Assessment Policy (May 18, 2010) allows for choice of competency-based or value-added assessment of the six competencies.