Economics

Assessment Plan

Program assessment within the economics department is focused on the Research Methods class (ECON 4980). This class is designed as a capstone experience class where students complete and present an individual research project. The economics department also administers the Test of Understanding College Economics (TUCE-4) in Micro and Macro-economics to graduating seniors who are enrolled in ECON 4980. Graduate exit surveys and syllabus analysis are conducted on at least a bi-annual basis to supplement the direct assessment results. General education learning outcomes are assessed via common exam questions that are embedded into the final exam of multiple sections taught by various instructors.

Overview of the Economics Program Assessment Plan
Assessment Tool	Assessment Objective	Course and Frequency
1. Research Project ECON 4980	Learning Outcomes 1 and 2	ECON 4980 – each semester
2. Syllabus Analysis	Opportunities for student research in preparation for the capstone experience class.	Annually
3. TUCE - 4 (Micro and Macro)	Learning Outcomes 3 and 4	ECON 4980 – each semester
4. Subset of International economics questions on the TUCE	Learning Outcome 5	ECON 4980 – each semester
5. Common embedded exam questions	General education learning outcomes for the core area American Institutions (AI) and Social Science (SS).	ECON 1010, ECON 2010, ECON 2020, ECON 1740 (at least during one semester, either fall or spring)

Assessment Report Submissions
- 2021-2022
  
  1) Review and comment on the trend of minority students enrolling in your classes (particularly lower-division, GEN Ed) and in your programs.
  
  In the last ten years, the percentage female has been as high as 53% in 2014 and as low as 25% in 2021. The high percentage female was in large part due to the large female cohorts coming from Shanghai Normal University. Now that program has slowed down due to the pandemic, the percent female has gone down dramatically.
  International students have been a large part of the department over the last ten years. Again in 2014, the percentage international was approximately 51%. Currently the percentage is closer to 9%.
  A positive trend with respect to minority students relates to the percent Latinx. The percentage has increased from a low of 3% to a current high of 11%
  
  2) What support (from enrollment services, advising, first-year transition office, access & diversity, etc.) do you need to help you recruit and retain students?
  
  When I have worked with the Office of Institutional Effectiveness for department data needs, the response has always been quick and supportive. My perception of the efforts of the college to get data from the university (and not necessarily OIE) for recruiting and retention has been quite the opposite. It has been so difficult to work with the central university at times, I would dare call it stonewalling. Perhaps there is a reason why the university will not share data with the college, but if so, that reason should be clearly articulated and shared. A cohesive data sharing plan should be created so that colleges can understand what will be shared and what will not be shared.
  
  3) We have invited you to re-think your program assessment. What strategies are you considering? What support or help would you like?
  
  Right now, the major learning outcomes are concentrated in one class. Expanding the assessment to other courses in the curriculum would provide a broader view of student performance and allow for earlier identification of any trouble spots.
  Thresholds could be reconsidered in a couple of different areas. First, instead of comparing performance to a national average, a fixed threshold could be used. Also the department could make progress on a well defined threshold for general education classes like ECON 1010, ECON 2010, and ECON 2020.
  
  4) Finally, we are supporting our Concurrent Enrollment accreditation process. Does your program offer concurrent enrollment classes? If so, have you been able to submit the information requested from the Concurrent Enrollment office? Staff from OIE will reach out to you in the next few months to assist in finalizing that data submission as well as gather information for concurrent Gen Ed assessment.
  
  The Department of Economics is offering its first two CE classes this semester at Northridge and Syracuse High School. Both high schools are offering ECON 1010 – Economics as a Social Science. Once available, I am happy to share any data we have.
  
  The full report is available for viewing.
- 2019-2020
  1) First year student success is critical to WSU’s retention and graduation efforts. We are interested in finding out how departments support their first-year students. Do you have mechanisms and processes in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students? Please provide a brief narrative focusing on your program’s support of new students:
  - Any first-year students taking courses in your program(s).
    
    We have two main first year courses in the department, ECON 1010 – Economics as a Social Science and ECON 1740 – Economic History of the United States. We support these students by deploying some of our best faculty members in these courses. Dr. Grijalva has taught the course for numerous years and is a continuous innovator. She is constantly creating economic experiments to illustrate economic behavior in the classroom. Dr. Vaughan also teaches the course. He brings deep insight to the course from his role as the Director of the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality. Dr. La Parra-Perez teaches ECON 1740 with an unmatched passion for economic history. This type of dedication and quality in the classroom encourages student success.
  - Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s)
    
    One opportunity for new students is the Associate Degree of Business and Economics. When students sign up for the degree, they are immediately brought under the college umbrella. Specifically this includes talking with college-specific advisors for guidance on GSBE degree completion. The college has also started a new student outreach effort through the Freshman Sophomore Business Club. Finally, the college Career Services Director is making an effort to get new students into his office sooner. Trends are that more students are completing more than one internship. Getting students into career services helps students find multiple internships and prepare early for the job market.
  2) A key component of sound assessment practice is the process of ‘closing the loop’ – that is, following up on changes implemented as a response to your assessment findings, to determine the impact of those changes/innovations. It is also an aspect of assessment on which we need to improve, as suggested in our NWCCU mid-cycle report. Please describe the processes your program has in place to ‘close the loop’.
  - The key closing the loop activity for the department is constant and continuous assessment. Constant and continuous assessment leads to closing the loop as we are always looking at assessment data to learn if changes improved measures of learning. We assess all learning outcomes each semester. This allows us to follow up on assessment findings on a semester-by-semester basis in department meetings.
  Specific actions in this cycle would include:
  - Department Learning Outcome 2: We have seen fairly steady performance near the threshold for LO2. We will continue to emphasize projects and writing in QUAN 3610, but largely consider this as integrated into our overall effort. This loop is closed. In 2019, we will open another loop to refine the threshold for LO2 and improve rubric clarity.
  - ECON 1010 was an early adopter to Big Questions and Signature Assignments. Student performance in ECON 1010 was due, in part, to implementation of this new pedagogy. Of course, Big Questions and Signature Assignments will continue to be used in the course.
  - ECON 1740 was also an early test case of the performance of BQs and SAs for improving student learning. Based on assessment data, BQs and SAs did not have the desired impact. This loop is now closed and new strategies are under consideration for ECON 1740. The new focus will be on more detailed review documents and more discussion of the significant political, economic, and social changes in American history.
  - ECON 2020, Learning Outcome 2: Instructors tried to apply the concepts and theories but chose examples that were too complex. Instructors have closed that loop and are moving to simpler examples that still apply theory and concepts.
  The full report is available for viewing.
- 2017
- 2016
  
  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
  Our assessment based improvements matured some this year. All students are now taking ECON 4970 – Introduction to Research Methods. This course was designed and implemented based on assessment results surrounding department learning outcome 1. Assessment measures have improved over time, though as this year indicates, some fluctuations still exists. Regarding the department learning outcome 2, the use of statistical methods, the department continues to encourage majors to take ECON 4550 – Econometrics. Numbers in Econometrics have stabilized around 15 to 20 students per semester. Finally, the assessment process for the American Institutions learning outcomes has been in place for several semesters. In the future, we will continue to monitor the learning of our students as measure by our assessment tools. Specifically, we will monitor the students’ ability to write about the political, economic, and social changes in American history in ECON 1740. It is possible that supplementing the syllabus with an emphasis on significant change will improve student learning. Instructors in ECON 2020 will assess students learning throughout the semester rather than through questions embedded in the final. Further, new questions are being discussed to better assess student learning for the General Education, Social Science Learning Outcome 1. In ECON 1010 all exam questions will be linked to a learning outcome. Therefore, moving forward in ECON 1010, assessment data will be much more comprehensive than in previous years.
  
  2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed.
  Our majors are required to take a capstone course, ECON 4980 – Research Methods. In this high impact class, students write an original research paper from start to finish. The paper is graded based on a rubric. These rubric scores are then used as a direct measure for department learning outcomes one and two. For learning outcomes 3 – 5, students in Research Methods take a nationally normalized standardized test designed to evaluate understanding of economics.
  
  The full report is available for viewing.
- 2015
  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?
  - In order to ensure improved performance in the required capstone experience course ECON 4980 Research Methods, the department is strictly enforcing the pre-requisite class ECON 4970 Introduction to Research Methods. The change has been too recent to see any systematic changes. However, the top performing students in ECON 4980 now include international students who have success in getting university support for NCUR and who submit papers to ERGO. Students’ performance on the normed TUCE (Test of Understanding College Economics) remains too low. The department supplemented the economics preparation of the 2+2 cohort from Shanghai Normal University by having a tenure-track faculty teach an additional principles economics class in Shanghai during May 2015.
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
  - A series of assessment discussions among targeted faculty groups will be conducted during spring 2016. This is essential as the economics faculty has several 1^st and 2^nd year tenure-track faculty members.
  The full report is available for viewing.
- 2014
  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?
  - The department continues to question the preparedness of senior economics majors with respect to their ability to devise and complete an independent research project. This is evidenced by the low pass rate of the class in Fall 2013. The pattern that emerges with respect to students who do not pass or do not perform at the expected level is often that part of their inadequate preparation consists of relatively lower English proficiency than their more successful peers. Given the maturing of student advising and enrollment processes for the international transfer students, the economics department has become stricter in monitoring that students have completed all pre-requisites for ECON 4980. Specifically, upon enrollment students can now be kept back for not completing ENGL 2010 as early as possible. Also, starting Fall 2015, all students will have had to complete ECON 4970, a 1 credit Introduction to Research Methods course before enrolling in ECON 4980. Students who started under an older catalog might not show this course as required, but after one year of exceptions, the department will strictly enforce this pre-requisite and all students in the program have been notified.
  - Another concern is the low level of performance on the national standardized test for micro- and macroeconomics by graduating seniors. Given that the performance on the exam did not enter the grade, the department will think about devising appropriate incentives to perform well on the test.
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
  - Assessment results were shared at a faculty meeting, but without discussion of changes. This discussion still has to take place, especially since the department has a number of first year faculty.
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
  - Planned changes are addressed in 1) already.
  the full report is available for viewing
- 2013
  1) Continuing Initiatives:
  - Given the lower level of competency in writing due to the changed student body, the economics department continues to flag students with particularly low writing skills as part of the admission process to the GSBE which involves registering for a 0 credit class ECON 2899. Part of this class is an admission essay that is graded using a common rubric. Students whose writing skills are low are told to rewrite and resubmit the essay.
  - Instructors for ECON 4980 have changed the structure of the course requirements to focus student attention on the importance of using economic theory in devising and implementing research papers.
  - The econ department continues to offer a one-credit course ECON 4800 in preparation for ECON 4980 during spring and fall semesters. The high pass rate in ECON 4980 during the following semesters (along with increased instructor inputs) indicates that this model should continue. ECON 4800 increasingly pays attention to various methods and to linking elements of the research process.
  - The econ department continues with direct assessment of the completed research papers and oral presentations in ECON 4980.
  - The econ department continues to offer ECON 4010 and 4020 (required intermediate theory courses) twice each year. This is possible because of increased numbers of major students. All students now have more flexibility in completing their degree.
  - Faculty reviewed assessment results from the previous year at the beginning of year department meeting.
  - The economics department closely monitors incoming student transcripts to flag any changes in curriculum at the home universities of the 2+2 international economics students. The lower performance on the TUCE tests by graduating economics seniors in the last two years warrants this inquiry into whether the admission criteria for the 2+2 students meet faculty expectations.
  - Faculty discussions regarding student achievement of general education learning outcomes center on appropriateness and coordination of embedding common exam questions.
  2) New Activities for the academic year 2012-2013:
  - During Fall 2013 the economics department changed the program requirements for all majors by making the one-credit hour course ECON 4970 Introduction to Research Methods mandatory for all economics majors. This change has been approved by Faculty Senate.
  - In Fall 2013, the Associate Dean Cliff Nowell had conversations with our partners at Shanghai Normal University to incorporate more economics into the first two years of study of the 2+2 students. Preliminary discussions regarding content of such a class have taken place with partners at SNU.
  - Faculty groups who teach the various general education classes have analyzed assessment tools and results during Fall 2013. All sections of ECON 2020 have implemented assessment and discussed appropriateness of the tool. Improvements in the student scores occurred in areas that align well with departmental learning outcomes (aggregate demand/aggregate supply).
  - Adjunct faculty in ECON AI 1740 have been contacted to implement assessment. The economics department will coordinate with the AI assessment group to use some of the agreed upon questions during Spring 2014.
  To view the full report select this link: Economics 2012/13 Annual Assessment Report
Program Review