Academic Assessment Cycle - Goal Setting - Targets and Benchmarks

Once the program's mission statement is written and Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) are established, it is important to set targets and benchmarks for students.

While ideally all students would perform at a perfect level on all direct measures, for each of your Student Learning Outcomes, that is unlikely to happen. Instead, targets and benchmarks for each Student Learning Outcome should be based upon the level of proficiency expected from students as a whole at the time they graduate.

An example of a target or benchmark for a Student Learning Outcome might be expecting X% of students to earn a 3.5/5 on one aspect of a rubric, and a 4/5 on another. 

Your targets and benchmarks should be set based upon the program’s needs and goals as well as the standards for the discipline or specialized accreditation agency.