The following information about German Assessment (on page 2 below) is taken from The Plan for Assessment of Student Learning Progress Report III (Morris, June 1998) and the following Assessment of Learning Website:
It clearly states the Unit Mission Goals, the Student Learning Objectives on all levels of instruction (Beginning to Advanced German), Expected Outcomes, and Assessment Methods. All the Methods, Measures, and Instruments for Expected Outcomes are still in effect.
To test expected outcomes on the First Year Level, German administers the Placement test during the last week of instruction of the First Year (German 1002) to determine the effectiveness of instruction and how much students have learned since being admitted to language study. The scores at entrance are compared with the scores at the end of second semester and evaluated. They also tell us if students are appropriately placed at the first and second year levels.
Graduate Record Examination Scores are also a determinant for the success of expected outcomes. German students entering law school and medical school have placed in the 99th percentile. The Dean's Office (Nancy Helsper) has access to such records. Graduating German students have gone on to graduate study in German, in Law, and in Medicine, in Public Health Administration, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, in International Business, and in Speech Pathology. They have been admitted to graduate schools such as George Washington University (US Intelligence), the University of Wisconsin in Madison (German), the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities Campus (Law School, Communication Science and Disorders, and the Department of German in Medieval Studies), the American Graduate School of International Management at the Thunderbird Campus in Glendale, Arizona, Ohio State University (German), the University of Iowa (School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the prestigious Writer's Workshop), the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, UM Duluth Medical School, and Indiana University (English). Many have received fellowship support and teaching assistantships at admission for graduate study for their entire career at the institutions where they have been admitted. Others are now teachers of German on the secondary level in Minnesota.
Cultural Literacy is tested by study abroad. Most of our German students now participate in overseas programs: They have been admitted to study abroad in Giessen, Trier, Graz, Vienna, Salzburg, Freiburg, Munich, and Berlin, mostly through the Global Campus (now IES) programs in Minneapolis. By studying overseas, they develop more advanced proficiency in the language.
Their ability to reason and write critically on the advanced level is tested in research projects in all upper division courses, often resulting in participation in professional conferences and publication of their presentations in professional journals.