CIC/Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) Consortium

The goal of the CLA instrument is not to measure changes in individual students, but rather to learn more about programmatic features that correlate with "institutional effects" associated with larger than expected gains in students' analytical reasoning, critical thinking, and writing skills. The CLA provides one of the first "value added" measures that can reliably compare institutional contributions to student learning.

​CIC has organized annual meetings with Consortium members each summer since 2005. The seventh and final summer meeting took place on August 1-2, 2011, in Pittsburgh, PA. Twenty-seven consortium members participating in the Pathways Project attended the meeting.  Read an article on the 2011 meeting in the summer 2011 Independent.

​With funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, CIC expanded the CIC/CLA the Consortium launched a new project in 2010 to include a new project, Creating Pathways to Educational and Economic Opportunity in Urban Colleges and Universities. The Pathways Project focuses on supporting a select group of Consortium institutions that are located in urban settings with the goal of improving learning outcomes of “underrepresented” students, such as first-generation college goers and those from low-income backgrounds. Nineteen current Consortium institutions and ten new institutions, participating as part of the comparison cohort, will administer the CLA over a two year period, from fall 2010 through spring 2012.

Should you have questions about the Pathways Project, please contact Esther Hong, CIC senior advisor, at ehong@cic.nche.edu or (917) 716-7058.

​For questions about the CLA Consortium, visit CAE's website or contact CIC Director of Research Projects Wei Song at wsong@cic.nche.edu or (202) 466-7230.

CIC published a report examinging the learning outcomes as measured by the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) of low-income and first-generation students attending urban colleges and universities, and provides comparisons with similar students at non-urban institutions.

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT (PDF)

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CIC published a a final report on the work of the CIC Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) Consortium. The report highlights the efforts of 47 independent colleges and universities to make voluntary use of the CLA and describes the challenges and “best practices."

DOWNLOAD THE REPORT (PDF)

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Since 2001, CIC has tried to help its member colleges navigate through the array of initiatives that are underway—those by regional accreditors, foundation-supported projects, and various campus efforts—focusing on specific aspects of the overall topic at different times.

DOWNLOAD THE STATEMENT (PDF)

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​CIC published a report highlighting the experiences of the 33 members of CIC's Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) Consortium, phase two, over three years as they used the CLA to measure student learning outcomes.