The English Department utilizes assessment for the following reasons:
- To determine students’ mastery of standards, course objectives, and department goals
- To provide feedback so that students and teachers can identify strengths and weaknesses
- To give students opportunities to apply knowledge in new contexts
- To prepare students for high-stakes assessments
Assessment will look different for different courses, but most will require some combination of the following: homework, classwork, quizzes, projects, tests, in-class essays, process writing, presentations, Socratic seminars/graded discussion, midterms or finals.
Some courses conduct part or all of their assessments using a standards-based approach.
Feedback is a critical part of assessment, and students can expect feedback within one week for smaller assessments and two-three weeks for larger assessments or writing assignments, subject to makeups.