Institutional Research and Effectiveness

Promoting a Culture of Principled Evidence.

The Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness 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 and Effectiveness supports this mission through the assessment of institutional effectiveness, student learning outcomes, and post-baccalaureate measures.

Institutional Effectiveness

Annually, the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness coordinates the collection of assessments that report student learning or program outcomes, methods of evaluation, evaluation results, and how programs will use their results to enhance their effectiveness. Effectiveness reports are provided by all academic programs, administrative support services (development, marketing and communications, accounting, business operations, human resources, etc.), academic support services (library, math center, writing center, center for calling and career, etc.) and student support services (athletics, student development, health services, chapel program, admissions, etc.). 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 Proficiency Profile 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 junior cohorts are measured against national norms provided by ETS.

Seniors with majors in business, chemistry, economics, English, mathematics, music, physics, and sociology take the Major Field Test for that discipline, published by ETS. Their performance is measured against national norms provided by ETS. Seniors with majors in biology, history, and psychology take the Area Concentration Achievement Test published by PACAT Inc.

All seniors must complete a capstone project 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 page of our website.