Section 4: Federal Requirements

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4.1 When evaluating success with respect to student achievement in relation to the institution's mission, the institution includes, as appropriate, consideration of course completion, state licensing examinations, and job placement rates.

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Judgment of Compliance:
Compliance

Narrative/Justification for Judgment of Compliance:
Christopher Newport University is in compliance with this federal requirement.

The mission of Christopher Newport University is to provide educational and cultural opportunities that benefit CNU students, the residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the nation. CNU provides outstanding academic programs, encourages service and leadership within the community, and provides opportunities for student involvement in nationally and regionally recognized research and arts programs. The mission statement further states that CNU's primary emphasis is to provide outstanding undergraduate education and graduate degree programs that foster intellectual and professional development.

Assessment and evaluation information is collected throughout the University. Each academic department assesses student outcomes yearly and provides a self-study of the programs within the department every five to six years. In addition, institutional research efforts provide information concerning retention, graduation rates, and course completion rates. The teacher preparation program is the only program at CNU that requires licensure for future employment. Job placement rates have been collected by different campus groups, but not in a systematic way. The University is working with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia to merge CNU graduate data with Virginia employment data to give a clearer picture of employment and salary of CNU graduates.

Christopher Newport University has seen many changes in the last ten years. Greatest among these is the transformation from a commuter college to a residential university. In 1994 the first residence hall opened. Now CNU has residence halls and student apartments to house approximately 3,000 students. Another change has been the decrease in the percentage of part-time students. Ten years ago 36% of the students were part-time; today fewer than 14% are. In the same period, as a result of CNU's increased efforts to recruit traditional-aged freshmen, applications have increased (over 6000 for the 1200 freshmen entering in Fall 2006), and SAT scores and high school grade point averages have risen steadily.

Licensure
Licensure for teaching in Virginia requires that students complete a degree in one of the traditional liberal arts (e.g., science, mathematics, English, history and social studies, psychology, or music), professional courses for the teaching profession, and supervised student teacher experiences, as well as pass PRAXIS I and PRAXIS II. CNU's program requires that students pass PRAXIS I before they can be admitted to the teacher preparation program, and each must pass PRAXIS II to complete a program. So, the pass rate for CNU graduates is 100%.

Course Completion
CNU has a strong course completion rate. The following table shows the data for the last three years.

A satisfactory completion rate means the course was passed with a passing grade or was an audit. An unsatisfactory completion indicates the student received a grade of F for the course. As can be seen from the table, the completion rate is rising. Course completion rates by discipline for the academic years 2004, 2005, and 2006 are also available.

As a result of a CNU program implemented several years ago, freshmen receive mid-term grade reports. Through this system students with low grades are alerted early in the semester so that they can seek additional help with coursework or take other steps to improve their grades by the end of the term. In 2005-2006, CNU worked with Noel-Levitz on retention issues. As a result of this consultation, a program was initiated that encourages faculty to help struggling students by taking direct action or referring them to academic advising or counseling.

Grade distributions for all courses are provided each semester to the individual faculty members, faculty members' department chairs, and the appropriate dean. These distributions are examined for anomalies. For example, if no students in a particular course made higher than a grade of C and the majority of the students made a D or an F, the department chair or dean investigates further to determine a cause. The grade distributions within programs are reviewed as part of the six-year program review process that each department undergoes and as part of the individual faculty's evaluation. Grade distributions are also used to check for grade inflation.

Retention and Graduation Data
Retention and graduation rates have received a great deal of attention. As mentioned, the University has begun several initiatives to increase both the freshman fall-to-fall retention and the graduation rates of freshmen cohorts. As shown in the following table, the one year persistence rates showed a steady increase from 1996 Cohort until the 2002 Cohort. The explanation for the drop in 2002 is that Virginia was forced to impose budget cuts on the colleges and universities. The cuts were to be made at each university such that the savings would be long-term. CNU cut three of its more expensive programs, two of which did not fit its mission as a liberal arts university. The result was, in addition to usual fall-to-fall loss, a loss of freshmen from that cohort who transferred to universities that had their programs of interest.

First-Time Full-Time Freshmen Cohort

CNU is also working to increase its graduation rates, reported as a percentage of the freshman cohort that graduated in six years. Students who transferred to and graduated from another institution are not counted. Students who take more than six years to complete their degree requirements are also not counted. This statistic does not include graduation rates of any students who transferred into CNU at a time other than as a first-time freshman. The table that follows shows the graduation rates for cohorts from 1994 through 2000.

First-Time Freshmen Six Year Graduation Rates

*Estimate (official figures tallied at end of summer 2006)

As can be seen from the table, the graduation rate has increased steadily.

Job Placement
In the late 1990s and early 2000s university-wide alumni surveys were conducted on a regular basis, in part to track job placement. For example, the 2002 survey of 2000-2001 graduates revealed that 76% of CNU graduates were employed full-time and another 11% were employed part-time. Results were also broken out by degree. In that period, reports of job placement were required by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). In recent years alumni surveys have fallen out of favor with SCHEV as a measurement tool of job placement. Low response rates and nonrepresentativeness of responders to the populations of interest reduced the meaningfulness of results. SCHEV is currently devising a system that matches graduate data files with state employment records. A merge of these data sources should yield far more reliable information to institutions of higher education. CNU is working with SCHEV representatives to receive this information.

In addition, individual programs keep track of placement rates within their programs, usually via departmental alumni surveys. For example, as part of their self-study the Social Work program surveyed alumni in 2003 who reported 95% employment.

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Support Documentation:
2002 University-Wide Alumni Survey
E-mail between CNU and SCHEV Concerning Job Placement Rates
Excerpt from Social Work Survey
2004 AY Course Completion by Discipline
2005 AY Course Completion by Discipline
2006 AY Course Completion by Discipline

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