Outcomes Assessment

[Richard Robin]

We OPI all students after the first 8 credit hours (=2 years none
intensive / 1 year intensive). We then OPI again after third year
(another 3 to 6 hours, depending on the track -- intensive or
non-intensive). Finally, we OPI all 4th-year students both first and
second semesters. Russian majors cannot graduate before attaining 1+. To
be eligible for departmental honors, one must get a 2. (Virtually no one
does this without a semester in Russia). About half our majors graduate
with 2 and on rare occasion 2+.

We send written warnings to students who, in our opinion, are in danger
of not reaching the minimum. These warning go out in the 2nd semester of
3rd year (to Russian majors), sometimes even in the 1st semester of third
year. Several years ago we had an incident in which we found ourselves
forced to graduate someone with less than acceptable Russian because we
had not put in a timely warning.

We do not test for any of the other skills in such an organized way.
However, students in the School of International Affairs in the REES
program must read at the 2 level. We have a 50-item test for that that
covers 15 short passages and uses short open-ended questions in English.
A sample is available on our web page:
http://gwis2.circ.gwu.edu/~slavic/tool.html
To read the Russian you must have a KOI8 font installed.

I hope this helps. -Rich Robin
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Richard Robin     <robin at gwis2.circ.gwu.edu>
Dept. of German and Slavic Languages and Literatures
The George Washington University
W A S H I N G T O N,  D. C. 20052