The core mission of California College of the Arts is to educate students to shape culture through the practice and critical study of the arts. CCA provides students with an education through the arts committed to creative practices that incorporate conceptual thinking and contextual understanding.

The learning outcomes identified below are the vital components of an undergraduate CCA arts education and are representative of our values and culture as an arts institution. We ask ourselves, what do we expect all CCA students to learn? Where/how do we teach it and how do we assess student attainment of these learning outcomes?

• Visual Communication: the ability to represent one’s ideas visually
• Visual Literacy: the ability to read and decipher images
• Knowledge of Historical and Contemporary Context of Visual Practice: an understanding of the role of the visual in contemporary society and historical and contemporary visual practices
• Interdisciplinarity: the ability to draw from multiple fields of study or to define new fields, expanding and bridging disciplines, transgressing boundaries
• Collaboration: a facility with team-building, exchanging of ideas, and active participation in a common enterprise
• Understanding of Cultural Diversity: a comprehension of differences in culture and identity and the societal impact of the discourses of power and privilege
• Professional Practice: preparation for practice in the field beyond college-level study, exposure to various career models, and an understanding of professional ethics and leadership
• Methods of Critical Analysis: proficiency in manners of engaged and careful evaluation, interpretation, and explication, and understanding of the scientific method
• Research Skills: capability in investigation, inquiry, information gathering and documentation
• Written Communication: the ability to read critically and then express one’s own ideas in the form of expository writing
• Verbal Communication: the ability to articulate one’s ideas verbally
• Program-Specific Techniques and Concepts: techniques (technologies, tools and craft) and concepts (knowledge and vocabulary, cultural/historical context and theories of practice, implementation of techniques, and problem-solving) specific to each area of study as outlined in the program-specific learning outcomes