Program reviews serve the following purposes:
- To ensure that the academic programs of the College remain strong, coherent and consistent;
- To aid the College’s long-range planning process of determining future curricular and faculty/staff needs by providing a central file of program analyses, plans, and aspirations;
- To anticipate ongoing and future curricular and staffing needs within the individual disciplines;
- To evaluate periodically departmental objectives and the definition and assessment of student learning outcomes; to revise curriculum and student learning outcomes based on assessment findings when appropriate;
- To assume the appropriate Faculty control of curricular planning in line with the Faculty’s responsibility under the by-laws of the College.
During the fall semester, the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) Chair will notify departments/programs of their program review the following academic year and ask them to advise regarding the timing of the Review. It will be made clear that these are curricular reviews, not personnel reviews. The Associate Dean of Faculty (ADOF) will send a list of programs to be reviewed to the Registrar for the upcoming year. The Registrar will provide the predetermined set of statistics for the Review (see Section 3.37).
The FEC will appoint one of its members as the FEC representative to each Program Review. The FEC member will meet with External Reviewers during their visit and serve as a resource for discussion of the Review by the FEC.
Departments/programs will determine whether External Reviewers visit campus remotely or in person, and provide the Associate Dean with the names of at least 6 potential External Reviewers, a rationale for their selection, and an explanation of what personal or professional relationship (if any) exists between members of the department/program and these individuals. This list will normally include recommended reviewers with substantial liberal arts college experience. The ADOF, in consultation with FEC, will select two External Reviewers from this list, at least one of whom has been identified as not having had a close personal or professional relationship with any of the members of the department/program. The ADOF and the FEC may consult with the department/program if additional names are needed.
No later than one month before their visit, the External Reviewers will receive the department/program self-study (see below), statistics from the Registrar’s office (see end of this document), the link to the on-line Scripps College Catalog, and the curricula vitae of full-time, continuing faculty in the department/program.
The Self-Study
The self-study produced by the department should have three parts: a descriptive section, an evaluative section, and a prospective section that considers the program’s future. The department will send an electronic copy to the ADOF six weeks prior to the review. A copy will be kept in the review files in the Dean of Faculty’s office. The self-study should normally not exceed 30 pages.
- Description of the Program:
The description should focus on the program itself; it also should address the program’s relation to other aspects of the Scripps curriculum and aspects of curricular life at the Claremont Colleges. Statistical data furnished separately by the Registrar, should be integrated into the descriptive section. The department should address any recommendations or suggestions made in the previous program review.
The descriptive section should:
- Describe the program’s offerings, including such aspects as: enrollments (Scripps and off-campus), class size, number of courses, distribution between introductory and advanced courses, the usage and frequency of independent study courses, majors, minors, advising, and theses. Review the recent history of the program. What new directions have been taken and what new courses have been offered since the last review? Discuss the rationale for these changes in the context of the yearly assessment of student learning.
- Review the recent history of the program. What new directions have been taken and what new courses have been offered since the last review? Discuss the rationale for these changes in the context of the yearly assessment of student learning.
- Describe the program’s faculty resources (e.g., full-time faculty, part-time faculty, leaves, leave replacements, retirements, resignations, and/or APT decisions). Describe the professional interests (research, performance or production) of each faculty member and how these contribute to the curriculum. Explain the ways faculty resources are distributed in terms of: introductory and advanced courses, independent study courses, responsibilities to the Core and to other college requirements, theses, major and minor advising, first-year advising and committee work. Describe how the faculty plan the curriculum to ensure course availability and the consistent sequencing of courses.
- Describe learning outcomes and assessment of those outcomes at the departmental level. Discuss evidence used to assess whether departmental learning outcomes are being achieved, how the department interprets this evidence, and how the department develops and implements ongoing action plans to respond to the results of this assessment. That is, how does the department know the curriculum is successful in accomplishing the department’s learning objectives? Indicate whether additional forms of evidence could be used to better assess the effectiveness of the curriculum in achieving the departmental learning outcomes.
- Describe what your department is doing to create a welcoming and productive environment for stuents from minoritized backgrounds. Discuss the ways in which your program is addressing the needs of all students in its curriculum, courses, hiring, and/or other areas of the program.
- Describe the nature of the program’s cooperation with relevant departments at the other Claremont Colleges. Distinguish whether the program is self-supporting, inter-Collegial, or cooperative and describe the extent to which and the ways in which faculty members from the different colleges cooperate. For example: To what extent and in what ways are the department’s majors and minors dependent on courses at the other Claremont Colleges? To what extent do majors and minors from the other Colleges depend on the department, and vice versa?
- How is the curriculum used by non-majors? In what ways does the program service the College’s GE requirements (Core, Breadth of Study, Race and Ethnic Studies, Gender and Women’s Studies, Foreign Language, Mathematics)? To what extent does the program furnish courses for other majors and minors, and/or lend itself to meshing with other programs for dual majors?
- Describe the program’s use of resources such as facilities, equipment, the libraries information technology, language assistants, or other student or support staff such as teaching assistants, student mentors, and/or study abroad programs.
- Discuss information literacy and scholarly research as it relates to the major. How are the students progressing in relation to information literacy? How are students determining the nature and extent of information needed for their work? Do they have the skills to access the needed information? Are they able to evaluate information and determine if it is appropriate and meaningful to their scholarship?
- Evaluation of the Program
Focus on the program’s strengths, weaknesses, and needs. Address issues that will require resolution in the near future. The evaluation section should speak to the program’s effectiveness and achievements within its own area of teaching, and also within the broader Claremont Colleges context.
- Goals:
Reflecting on the evaluation section, describe short- and long-range goals for the future of the program to take advantage of the department’s strengths and address weaknesses and needs.
The Review Day
The department is responsible for reserving a room for the External Reviewers, creating the schedule of the review day, and obtaining lunch or lunch tickets for the reviewers. The department faculty may meet the reviewers for breakfast and/or dinner.
The department creates the schedule of the review day to ensure that the the External Reviewers meet with appropriate people during the visit. External Reviewers meet the Dean or Associate Dean of Faculty from 9-9:30am AND 4:30-5pm; the FEC representative; all the full-time faculty of the program; any regular, on-going, part-time faculty in the program; others as appropriate including faculty or staff from the other Colleges; and students who are majors and minors or who have undertaken significant work in the program. Student input is a valuable component of the review. It is expected that department or program faculty meet individually and as a group with the External Reviewers. The department Chair sends the Review Day schedule to the Associate Dean of Faculty two weeks prior to the visit of the External Reviewers.
The External Reviewers Report
The External Reviewers submit their Report to the ADOF within one month of the conclusion of their visit. The ADOF promptly forwars the report to the department Chair. Within two weeks of receipt of this Report, the department Chair, in consultation with all members of the department, may submit a response to the Report, indicating any errors of fact or raising other issues pertinent to the recommendations of the External Reviewers. The department Chair sends their response to the ADOF, who promptly forwards it to the FEC along with the self-study, External Reviewers report, and access to all supplementary documents.
Role of the FEC
FEC examines the self-study, the External Reviewers’ Report, the department’s response to the External Reviewers’ Report, if any, and any other relevant materials. FEC writes a letter with its conclusions and recommendations to the department. This letter concludes the Review and shall be considered by FEC in future academic planning. Details of the Review will not be included in the FEC minutes. The department should consider all materials as well as the FEC letter in its own curricular planning.
Timeline of the process:
Fall semester (typically mid-November):
FEC notifies departments of review the following year.
Spring semester (typically late February)
Departments/programs provide ADOF with the names, titles, email addresses, and College/University affiliations of at least 6 potential External Reviewers, a rationale for their selection, and an explanation of what personal or professional relationship (if any) exists between members of the department and these individuals.
Spring semester/early summer
ADOF consults with FEC to confirm ordered list of reviewers, contacts reviewers, schedules review days for following academic year. ADOF shares names of departments/programs under review with the Registrar’s Office and the Office of Assessment and Research.
No later than six weeks before the External Reviewers’ visit:
Department provides the self-study, faculty CVs, and Registrar’s data to the ADOF. The ADOF checks the materials for completeness in regard to the required components.
No later than one month before the External Reviewers’ visit:
ADOF sends self-study, department CVs, link to Scripps College Catalog, and appendices with Registrar’s data to External Reviewers and FEC liaison.
No later than two weeks before the External Reviewers’ visit:
Department submits the visit schedule to the ADOF (including but not limited to open and closing meetings with the DOF, as well as meetings with the FEC liaison, individual and departmental member meetings, student sessions, meeting with other relevant individuals). The ADOF sends the schedule to the External Reviewers.
Within one month of conclusion of the visit:
External Reviewers submit report to the Associate DOF.
Within two weeks of receipt of External Reviewers’ Report:
Department may submit response to Report to the FEC (the response is sent to the ADOF). ADOF promptly sends self-study, External Review, and Department/Program response (as three separate documents) to FEC liaison, FEC Chair, DOF, Administrative Assistant for DOF, and Director of Faculty Support Services.
Statistics for the Program Review
Statistical data, as follows, will be compiled by the Registrar’s Office for the department under review for each year in the period since the last Review.
- Number of students in courses by faculty member by semester:
- further broken down by Scripps students and Off-Campus enrollment
- average class size
- Number of graduates - major, minor, double, dual by year:
- number of majors by semester
- number of students taking courses off campus for the major being reviewed by course by semester
- Listing of the general education requirements fulfilled by courses within the department
- Number of senior theses advised by faculty member:
- further broken down by first and second readers
- further broken down by major
- Number of independent studies by year and by faculty
- Number of advisees by faculty member by semester:
- Further broken down by major advisees and first-year advisees
- Core participation by faculty by year and by course
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