Humanities Assessment At Kennedy-King College Spring 2015 DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 1 Prepared by Robert Rollings, summer 2015

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 2 In spring 2015, Kennedy-King College administered an assessment of humanities learning to 687 student respondents in a wide sample of classrooms in various subjects. The assessment was designed by Gene Smith and Paula Martinez, with contributions from other humanities faculty in their areas of expertise and assistance from the director of research in a limited advisory capacity. The intention of the survey was to assess student success of Humanities SLOs.

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 3 The sample was demographically typical of KKC.

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 4 The assessment was administered in a broad array of classes, with 66% in the Humanities. An especially high proportion of respondents came from music and art classes. A third of respondents have taken a course in music, and a third have taken a course in African American studies. Only 11% had taken no class in the humanities.

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 5 2/3 of respondents regarded 11 to 22 students as the ideal size for a Humanities class. Less than 10% of all respondents reported having ever taken a Humanities field trip. SURVEY RESPONSES

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 6 Students agree with the value of the humanities generally but are more likely to agree strongly that it contributes to appreciation of life and citizenship than that it is important to their careers. Students agree about equally with the value of humanities for their lives and personal interest as with math or sciences, but they regard the humanities as less important to their careers.

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 7 Standard deviation was 3.7 Valuation of the Humanities made a difference in average assessment scores. Average correct responses were 9.8 out of 23, for both students who had and had not taken any Humanities course.

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 8 Taking any Humanities course doesn’t raise overall scores on the assessment, but taking a Humanities course does raise performance on the parts of the assessment specifically geared to its discipline—significantly more for some subjects than others. The assessment thus appears more to have measured specific knowledge particular to each Humanity than learning objectives shared throughout the Humanities.

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 9 Race/Ethnicity made a difference in performance. So did having ever taken a Humanities field trip! Access to field trips can be taken as an index of privilege that tends to lead to overall higher exposure to the humanities.

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 10 Most questions on the assessment drew from the Western European canon of art and humanities. Students performed better on questions dealing with abstract concepts of art and better still on questions relating to African American art than on the questions relating to European heritage.

DRAFT - FOR DISCUSSION ONLY 11 Conclusions & Questions The assessment mostly measured retention and recognition skills learned in specific Humanities classes. Higher-level skills in critique, performance, or analysis were less tested. How does it matter in your class if students possess critical and analytical abilities taught in the Humanities? How do we measure if students possess these abilities? Students who were not African American and students who had taken field trips performed better on the assessment. Why do we think this is? How should we respond? Students who were not African American and students who had taken field trips performed better on the assessment. Why do we think this is? How should we respond? Most KKC students performed better on questions relating to African-American art and heritage than questions relating to Western European heritage. How should we respond to this finding?