Public Information

The Planning Accreditation Board requires this information to be posted for the BS in Community & Regional Planning program.

Student Achievement

The Community & Regional Planning program at the Department of Geography, Planning, and Environment, East Carolina University, is designed to prepare professional planners for both the public and the private sectors, primarily serving the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern regions of the United States as well as other national and international communities.

Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes, 2024-2025

Expertise in Specialized Planning: Students will demonstrate knowledge of at least one specialized area of planning such as community development, coastal development, environmental planning or urban design.

• Means of Assessments: Students in their last semester complete an Exit Exam with embedded questions about the specialized areas of planning. Students select one of the specialized areas and complete the questions.
• Criterion for Success: 80% or more of students taking the exit exam will correctly answer 75% of the questions for their specialized area.
• Result Status: Criterion Not Met
  • Actions taken, results & analysis of results:
    • Actions taken:
      • Local Government Budgeting has been moved to PLAN3032: Legislation and Administration in Planning. In Spring 2025, it was taught by a current city deputy manager (Planner-in-Residence) whose expertise perfectly fits the course.
      • Consultations with the Planning Accreditation Board and chairs/directors of other Planning programs in the U.S. confirmed that our project-based emphasis in undergraduate education is desirable—the way we practice is above and beyond that of other programs.
      • Instructor of PLAN4099: Planning Practicum (Spring 2025) restructured his class by covering a wide range of planning mechanic, techniques, and practices through topics and assignments—e.g., leaderships, mapping, local government, legistration, ethics, economic development, and project managements. The efforts assured and reinforced students the fundamentals from all the courses students took in the major.
      • PLAN4025: Housing and Neighborhood Planning (Fall 24) and PLAN4075: Transportation Planning (Spring 25) completed two class-wide research projects.
      • Students in PLAN3031: Quantitative Analysis in Planning (Spring 25) completed community profile reports of the CAMA counties throughout the semester. From the practical quantitative analytical approaches with the most recent data, students gained skills that are required in planning a career.
      • PLAN3022: History and Theory in Planning (Spring 2025) introduced students Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). Students completed readings related to this topic, and their final project was to write a report on an MPO of their choice. A guest speaker from Rocky Mount MPO was invited to speak on this topic.
      • Senior students completed 12 capstone projects in specialized topics with clients—one small group project and eleven individual projects.
      • Exit Exam questions on the emphasis areas were revised.
    • Result Status: Criterion not met. 66.6% of students (2 out of 3 students) who took the exit exam scored 75% or more on this outcome; thus, the criterion of 80% was not met.
    • Analysis of results:
      • Urban planning is a fast-changing field of study. Specialized courses (4000-levels) have always been updated based on the “current” issues in the field. Due to the same reason, the exit exam questions have been updated to assess students’ performance. Planning faculty are confident that we excel in our education. Only three students took the exit exam this year (a small graduate size). Evaluating the learning outcome with such a small sample size does not work and inaccurate.
    • Actions Planned Based on Analysis of Results:
      • After first introduced in PLAN3032: Legislation and Administration in Planning, local government budgeting will be reinforced in PLAN4099: Planning Practicum for assurance of the subject contents.
      • We have observed the increased desire for undergraduate research. Faculty will work with students who share their interest in specialization—e.g., GIS, housing, and international planning. Students will present their research at ECU’s RCAW conference in Spring 2026.

For the full 2024-2025 report made to the ECU Institutional Planning, Assessment, and Research (IPAR), click BS Assessment Report 2024-2025.