The Political Science Program Assessement Committee was called to order by Chair Carol Botsch at about 4 pm. Attending were Girma Negash, Greg Weis, and Robert Botsch, in addition to the chair.

As a first order of business, Robert Botsch reported on the gathering of pretests from Spring 2000. He is still in the process of grading the examinations, but reported that these will be shortly completed.

The committee next turned to the administration of entrance examinations for incoming students in the current semester. It was agreed that Carol Botsch would see that sufficient copies of the exam were to be printed and that each professor would be responsible for contacting students in their own classes and administering the test. It was emphasized that the examinations should be given as soon as possible so as to maximize their validity in measuring knowledge of incoming students.

The next topic of discussion was the empirical analysis of the examinations. Robert Botsch agreed to form a subcommittee of one and enter the data into MicroCase for compilation and statistical analysis. He suggested that each question should be entered separately so that we can determine precisely what information we are not successfully passing on to our students, and this would also help in evaluating the validity and reliability of the examination questions. Although this will require quite a bit more work, it will be invaluable in assessing where we are strongest and where we are weakest.

Finally, the committee decided to take minutes and to post information about the assessment program on the department homepage.

The committee adjourned shortly before 5 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Robert Botsch