Assessment
Mission Statement
A key unifying theme of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law Strategic
Plan is effective assessment. Assessment helps us measure growth toward
our fundamental institutional goal, which is to provide our students
with a quality legal education that equips them to become ethical,
competent, and effective members of the legal profession. To this end,
our law school plans to lead the contemporary movement in legal
education to a more student-centered, outcomes-based approach to
measuring our effectiveness.
The Assessment Department systematically gathers and reports
information from measured outcomes to help us evaluate the effectiveness
of our programs. We evaluate our curriculum initiatives to determine
whether students are acquiring the skills they will need to become
effective practitioners. We also collect data which helps us monitor
academic and administrative programs, such as our first year orientation
program, our bar preparation programs, and academic support
initiatives. With the TMSL Center for Legal Pedagogy, we assist in
training our faculty on best practices in teaching and classroom
assessment.
Goals and Objectives
In keeping with its mission, the Assessment Department has
identified the following goals and performance objectives:
Goal 1: Develop effective assessment protocols and data
collection procedures for academic and administrative units of the law
school
- Draft a comprehensive assessment plan that is consistent with
and supports the Texas Southern University Strategic Plan and our
own Thurgood Marshall Law School Strategic Plan
- Design and maintain a comprehensive database of TMSL law school
data pertaining to student learning and development
Goal 2: Evaluate the effectiveness of our academic and
administrative programs
- Collaborate with our professors to assess students’ foundational
lawyering skills
- Collaborate with our law school administrators to evaluate the
impact of administrative initiatives, including programs in career
services, library services, external affairs, and admissions
- Collect and analyze assessment data
Goal 3: Train faculty on effective classroom assessment
- With our colleagues in the Center for Legal Pedagogy, conduct
faculty develop workshops on best practices in teaching and
assessment
- Analyze the impact of our teaching enrichment grants.
These grants are awarded to TMSL faculty members to encourage the
design of cutting edge classroom teaching and assessment protocols
that measure student achievement.
Goal 4: Report our findings
- Analyze and report data to various TMSL stakeholders
- Publish our assessment findings through online forums such as
the ERIC database
- Network with colleagues in the academy through participation in
assessment conferences and workshops
