Recertification and Assessment

Institutional GE Assessment Plan (filed with the New Mexico Higher Education Department 8/1/19)

Overview

NMSU’s General Education Course Certification Committee (GECCC) is responsible for designing and implementing a periodic recertification process for GE courses. As with state certification, recertification will be done in a system-wide fashion across all five NMSU campuses.

Assessment of student learning will play a prominent role in the recertification process, with a specific focus on assessment of the essential skills that are central to the new state-wide GE model. Learning assessment is generally managed independently on each of NMSU’s five campuses. In recognition of campus-distinctive processes, assessment requirements for recertification have been formulated in general terms. Campuses may elect to coordinate with each other on more detailed assessment plans.

The development of essential skills directly supports NMSU’s strategic goal of enhancing student success and social mobility (LEADS 2025 Goal 1). Periodic assessment for recertification is intended to support deliberate and effective instruction of essential skills in GE courses system-wide.

Recertification process and assessment expectations

  • Recertification will take place on a six-year rolling cycle, one content area per year, starting in the 2022-23 academic year. A specific schedule is still being developed.
  • Each of the essential skills associated with a course must be assessed at least once every three years on each campus where the course is taught. Assessments on each campus should include a representative sample across all sections of the course at least once in the six-year cycle.
  • To meet recertification requirements, each campus on which a course is taught will submit a summary assessment report to the GECCC for every course being recertified in a given year.
  • The GECCC review will focus on the quality of the assessment including how assessment findings are used for improvement. The committee’s role in reviewing assessment reports is not to make judgments of what level of student performance is satisfactory.