Section 5: Discussion and plan

In this section, the faculty announces its conclusions about each of the claims it has made about Quality Principle I. Were the claims supported by the results? Fully? Partially? Not at all? In other words, the faculty explains what the results mean with regard to the claims it ad-vance's in the Inquiry Brief about Quality Principle I. It is important that the faculty members be as explicit as possible about what they think the results mean and do not mean.

To meet Quality Principle III, the faculty must also explain what the results mean for the pro-gram. How, for example, will the results affect the faculty’s ongoing plan for continuous improvement of the program (required by Quality Principle III)? Will the results prompt the faculty to modify the program, undertake some further line of inquiry to check a finding, or probe a new area? What do the faculty members think the results mean for the improvement of the program’s quality, and how do they plan to use the results to continually improve the program?

It is appropriate to describe how past decisions about the program have been influenced by the evidence of student learning brought to light in the operation of the quality control system. How have decisions made in the past about the program been shaped by the evidence procured by the quality control system? Finally, how will the results of the assessments influence the faculty’s system of quality control?

The system that the faculty has developed to investigate, ensure, and monitor the quality of the program (documented in Appendix A of the Inquiry Brief) is the core of Quality Principle III, and the discussion must make clear how that system responds to the findings reported in the results section.

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