As described in our Accreditation Self-Study, Yale routinely collects a number of statistics to monitor undergraduate life at Yale. These include items like graduation rate and time to graduate, Consortium on Financing Higher Education (COFHE) surveys which address student satisfaction and college experience, analyses of course-taking patterns and grades, and activities after graduation.
All of these statistical measures seem quite distant from the rich textu re of undergraduate life at Yale. As part of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) Institutional Assessment Portfolio (IAP), Yale chose to dig deep beneath the surface to try to get at the kind of details that make anecdotal stories of student outcome so fascinating. For some time the Dean's office has engaged in review of individual case studies by admission officers and residential college deans. As part of the IAP, we have attempted to make the review more systematic and in greater depth.
One of the "outcomes assessments" that Yale is undertaking is an expanded version of the sort of conversations that we have been holding each fall between residential college deans and admissions officers. We took a sample of 36 members of the Class of 2002 from three residential colleges. Students in the sample were selected quasi-randomly based on gender, ethnicity, nationality, financial aid, and athletes status. Students with certain criteria (e.g., underrepresented minorities, etc.) were over-sampled to be comparable. We are reviewing the students' academic records, educational record files, admissions materials, extracurricular activities, participation in athletics and whatever other documentation we have about their careers at Yale. We are interviewing those who were most likely to have known about the students' careers here (e.g., deans, masters, faculty advisers, Directors of Undergraduate Studies, senior essay advisers, assistant deans, coaches, etc.) using a questionnaire developed for the project. We are trying to provide the fullest description we can of how these particular individuals made their way, successfully or unsuccessfully or both, through their time at Yale. The primary goal of this study is to find out as much as we can about the factors influencing the shapes and trajectories of Yale College students' careers. What we learn from this study may prove useful not only to the deans themselves, but to admissions and our many offices that provide student support.
Assessing Language Proficiency
Yale has undergraduate foreign language requirements, and many graduate programs have such requirements. Each year a number of Yale graduate and undergraduate students are involved in some sort of study abroad programs. How should we measure improvement in foreign language proficiency?
The Center for Language Study (CLS) has undertaken a project to improve testing of language proficiency. The first study is a comprehensive Korean language proficiency test. Work on this test began during the summer of 2002. The test is composed of two parts: 1) oral proficiency interview for assessing speaking ability, and 2) a written test for assessing listening, reading, and writing. The test is constructed on the basis of the East Asian Language Proficiency Guidelines, which are applicable to Chinese, Japanese, and Korean and describes four levels of proficiency on the four language skills. The development of the Korean proficiency test, together with the Chinese and Japanese proficiency tests, facilitates the following three tasks: 1) standardization of language assessment of the three East Asian languages, Chinese, Japanese and Korean, 2) measuring the progress of language proficiency of the students who participate in the language program abroad such as Light Fellowships, and 3) converting the language proficiency tests into computer-assisted testing form.
Other Related Links
Factsheet - Statistical Summary of Yale University
A Yale Book of Numbers, Historical Statistics of the College and Univesity, 1701-1977