Core Competencies

The MiraCosta College Core Competencies describe the broad general education learning outcomes students should have gained when completing transfer preparation (60 units including CSU or IGETC general education) or a degree, and through their exposure to different support and enrichment programs and services. Courses and programs map/align to these larger outcomes, and students gain exposure to some, but not necessarily all of them, from educational experiences that don’t encompass completion of a degree or transfer pattern.

CC and Learning Outcomes

Upon commencement of studies and progressing toward the completion of an educational goal, MiraCosta College students prepare for twenty-first century challenges by gaining:

Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World

Attained through general education and major study in the sciences and mathematics, social and behavioral sciences, humanities, histories, languages, and the arts

Informed by awareness of global issues and trends, focused by engagement with big questions, both contemporary and enduring.

Intellectual and Practical Skills, including

Inquiry, analysis and independent thinking
Critical and creative thinking
Quantitative literacy and problem solving
Information literacy
Written and oral communication skills
Integration of knowledge

Practiced extensively across the curriculum in the context of progressively more challenging problems, projects, and standards for performance.

Personal and Social Responsibility and Efficacy, including

Civic knowledge and engagement - local and global
Intercultural competence and respect for diverse perspectives
Teamwork and collaborative skills
Ethical reasoning and action
Goal-setting / project-planning and completion
Skills for ongoing personal, academic, and professional growth

Anchored in applied learning through active involvement with real world challenges and diverse environmental, workplace, cultural, and community contexts.

Core Competency Assessment Process

Core competency assessments are conducted to evaluate student achievement in meeting the broad general education outcomes across our courses, programs, and service areas.  This data provides a valuable tool to develop targeted strategies to continuously improve student learning.

Upon official adoption of the Core Competencies (CCs) in 2017, instructional departments mapped their CSLOs to the competencies. Faculty were provided with a list of Core Competencies and their definitions/descriptions related to scoring rubrics that would be used and were developed through the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AACU). In fall 2017 semester, the Outcomes Assessment Committee (OAC) drew up plans to pilot the assessment process. Assessment was launched in the spring of 2018, with two of the fifteen competencies being assessed each semester thereafter. Associate faculty and full-time faculty teaching mapped courses in the diverse areas of Plan A are contacted by OAC and asked to participate in the current assessment(s).

A Core Competency workgroup meets monthly to facilitate the assessment of core competencies, calibrate the VALUE rubrics, and drive the work for other supporting projects. The workgroup hosts meetings each semester to discuss the process and train participating faculty on the common use of the specific VALUE rubric prior to each core competency assessment. Surveys and/or post-assessment meetings are used to gather faculty feedback on the process so that there is continuous improvement in our rubrics and implementation of assessments. The collective data for each assessment is disaggregated and disseminated to the college community through formal reports and a data dashboard.