Student Learning Outcomes

at Latin Beauty Academy

Latin Beauty Academy has a high definition of the importance of the student success in the learning process.

We recognize that the student’s successes are the institution’s success. Student learning outcomes from our institution are based on a strong theoretical knowledge, practical skills, professional attitudes, and competencies, and also critical thinking skills that students are expected to acquire at an institution of higher education.

Latin Beauty Academy’s has designed the student learning outcomes statements based on:

Specific institutional objectives according to the program.
Understanding by multicultural audiences.
Receptive feedback about the quality and utilization of knowledge.

Director of Education and faculty design the classes based on the importance of action verbs from Bloom’s Taxonomy. Action verbs result in overt behavior that can be observed and measured student learning outcomes, describe what students are expected to demonstrate.

One of the main goals for our institution is obtain satisfactory learning outcomes for our students. Our program, courses, and classes are designed to describe what students are able to demonstrate in terms of knowledge, skills, and values upon completion of a course, a span of several courses, or a program. Faculty have defined that clear articulation of learning outcomes serves as the foundation to evaluating the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process.

For Latin Beauty Academy, the Components of a Measurable Learning Outcome are based on two essential components:

Student skills learning and professional behaviors (Practical Skills Evaluations)
Appropriate assessment methods and specific student performance criteria for success (Class participation)

INFORMAL TECHNIQUES

Written Reflections: Assessment techniques have students reflect immediately following a learning opportunity (e.g., at the end of a class or after completing an out-of-class activity) to answer one or two basic questions like:

“What was the most important thing you learned today?”

“What was the most confusing topic today?”

“What important question remains unanswered?”

Class Survey: Data on student opinions, attitudes, behaviors or confidence in understanding can be gathered either during class (e.g., with a classroom response system) or outside of class. This can illustrate student engagement with the material as well as prior knowledge, misconceptions, and comprehension. (Students Class Evaluation)

Checks for Understanding: Pausing every few minutes to see whether students are following along with the lesson not only identifies gaps in comprehension, but helps break up lectures (e.g, with Clicker questions).

Wrappers: "Wrapping" activities, using a set of reflective questions, can help students develop skills to monitor their own learning and adapt as necessary.

FORMAL TECHNIQUES

In-class Activities: Having students work in pairs or small groups to solve problems creates space for powerful peer-to-peer learning and rich class discussion. Instructors and TAs can roam the classroom as students work, helping those who get stuck and guiding those who are headed in the wrong direction. Quizzes: Gauge students’ prior knowledge, assess progress midway through a unit, create friendly in-class competition, review before the test; quizzes can be great tools that don't have to count heavily toward students' grades. Using quizzes to begin units is also a fun way to assess what your students already know, clear up misconceptions, and drive home the point of how much they will learn.

SUMMATIVE (HIGH-STAKES) ASSESSMENTS:

Summative assessment techniques evaluate student learning. These are high-stakes assessments (i.e., they have high point values) that occur at the end of an instructional unit or course and measure the extent to which students have achieved the desired learning outcomes.

Exams: This includes mid-term exams, final exams, and tests at the end of course units. The best tests include several types of questions – short answer, multiple-choice, true-false, and short essay – to allow students to fully demonstrate what they know.

Papers, projects, and presentations: These give students the chance to go deeper with the material to put the knowledge they’ve acquired to use or create something new from it. This level of application is an extremely important and often overlooked part of the learning process. These types of projects also give students who do not test well a chance to shine.

Our Director of Education is in charge to write measurable learning outcomes. In each class visit, they are focus on student behavior as results of the specific action verbs used for each class objective and appropriate assessment methods, which must state desired performance criteria.

Focus on student behavior; the Director of Education evaluates the learning outcomes how the students are able to demonstrate upon completion of the class and course based on the final grading data for each course shown and the critical thinking skills, such as problem solving as it relates to social issues. The following are examples of learning outcomes parameters from the class:

Students will be able to collect and organize appropriate client data.
Students will be able to apply principles of evidence-based in the beauty industry to determine clinical diagnoses, and formulate and implement acceptable treatment modalities.
Students will be able to use technology effectively in the delivery of instruction, assessment, and professional development.
Students will be able to evaluate the need for assistance technology.
Graduates will be able to evaluate educational research critically and participate in the research community.
Students will appreciate the value of outcomes assessment in assuring quality across the medical profession.

Latin Beauty Academy Administration understands that learning outcomes are not about what the instructors can provide but what the students can demonstrate. For this reason, the institution has defined what are not learning outcomes:

Offer opportunities for students to master integrated use of information technology.
The program will engage a significant number of students in a formalized study program.
Students who participate in practical activities demonstrating critical thinking skills.

Our institution systematically assesses how to improve the academic programs; the administration periodically measures the student perceptions and intellectual growth. Faculty conducts campus based studies about student academic achievement, student satisfaction, personal, professional, and career development.

Forty students were scheduled to graduate in the year of 2013, and the report showed that 38 were graduates which compute to an outstanding completion rate of 95 percent. NACCAS requires 50% completion rate and that school is clearly in compliance. Out of 38 graduates, 30 were placed in area salons and other beauty industry establishments. Dividing the number of placed graduates by the total number of graduates come to 79%, which is well over the 60% placement rate required for accreditation. All of the school programs were doing well in placement. The largest group of graduates (Nail Technician Program) had a 76% rate of placement. The Full Specialist program graduated 2 out of 2 students (100%). The 86% completion rate for cosmetology program was excellent considering it is a much longer course: 21 out of 23 graduates, who took the exam in 2013, passed for excellent licensure percentage of 91%.