Ensure Students Have the Essential Skills for
Academic and Career Success
Identify students’ strengths and areas for improvement in the foundational skills that are essential to their success in higher education and beyond — critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication.
Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA+) for Higher Education
Multiple choice assessments can gauge students’ content knowledge but aren’t able to identify proficiency with the foundational skills that are essential to students’ college and career success — critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication. The performance-based CLA+ provides insightful, nuanced evidence of students’ competencies in these areas so they and their instructors can work to develop these essential skills.
STUDENTS & FAMILIES
Students will gain insight into the skills most in demand by employers and that will help them apply what they’re learning in their courses.
Their personalized assessment results report will outline:
The characteristics of strong critical thinking, problem solving, and written communication so they can work with their teachers to develop a plan to build those specific skills
How they’re developing in all three essential skill areas as well as six subsets of those skills
How their skills compare to their school’s average as well peers across the country so they can set goals for growth
FACULTY
CLA+ provides faculty with critical insights to help improve their students’ skills and prepare them for success in the workplace.
Faculty can use the data provided by student and
institution reports to:
Provide instruction to build critical thinking, problem- solving, and written communication skills
Provide additional supports to students who have greater opportunities for growth
Advise and provide guidance on attaining career goals
ADMINISTRATION
Administrators receive reports that include an institutional analysis of student growth and how their students compare to national averages.
These data are useful to:
Develop curricula and programs that supports skill building
Elevate your institutions profile with prospective
students and families
Demonstrate student outcomes and success to
hiring organizations
CASE STUDY
Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School Works to Develop Students’ Essential Learning Skills with Support from CAE
Mays Business School (MBS) realized they weren’t teaching students the skills most in-demand by employers, so in the Fall of 2021 they launched a program to strengthen these essential skills.
Students’ skills are assessed using CLA+, and CAE has worked with MBS faculty to provide critical thinking instruction to students.
CAE Also Supports Student Growth With:
INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS
Critical thinking instructional
materials and practice
performance assessments
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professional development on
how to use performance tasks in
the classroom and how to
integrate essential skills into
course content