The
Office of Institutional Research serves Covenant College in four major areas:
- Support of Covenant College's Mission
- Institutional Effectiveness
- Academic Assessment
- Availability of Public Data
Support of Covenant College's Mission
Covenant College is a faith-based institution of higher education committed to the Bible as the Word of God written, and accepts as its most adequate and comprehensive interpretation the summary contained in the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. The Office of Institutional Research supports this mission through the assessment of institutional effectiveness, student learning outcomes, and post-baccalaureate measures.
Institutional Effectiveness
Annually,
the Office of Institutional Research coordinates departmental assessments that
report departmental objectives, methods of evaluation, evaluation results, and
how departments will use their results to enhance their effectiveness.
Effectiveness reports are provided by academic departments, centers of special
service, athletics, student development, career services, health services,
information technology, and the library. Additionally, broad institutional
effectiveness is also assessed by how well the College has succeeded in helping
students make significant progress toward maturity in the following areas: (1)
Identity in Christ; (2) Biblical frame of reference; (3) Christ-like service.
Academic Assessment
Entering freshmen are tested on the Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress published by Educational Testing Service, which provides a benchmark for assessing academic progress in critical thinking, reading, writing, and mathematics. Second-semester juniors are assessed using the same measure. Analysis of these data determine how well students are gaining general education skills through the Covenant College core curriculum. Results for both freshmen and senior cohorts are measured against national norms provided by ETS.
Seniors
with majors in biology, business, chemistry, English, history, information
& computer science, music, physics, psychology, and sociology take the Major
Field Test for that discipline, published by ETS. Their performance is
measured against national norms provided by ETS.
All
seniors must complete a senior integration project (SIP) that requires them to
demonstrate a mastery of a particular area of their major, written
communication skills, oral presentation skills, and the ability to meaningfully
integrate their faith with their discipline.
Availability of Data
The Office of
Institutional Research provides institutional data to IPEDS, the Common
Data Set, U-CAN, and U.S. News and World
Report for consumption by the public. Additionally, we provide more
detailed evidence on this website.
