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SACS/COC Fifth-Year Interim Report, Part III. Dr. Laurie Carter, Director of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, represents the Dentistry, M.S.D. program, and Ms. Kim Isringhausen, M.P.H., Director of Dental Hygiene and Preceptorship Programs, represents the Dental Hygiene, B.S. program. The D.D.S. and M.S.D. programs have external accrediting bodies and both met their external accreditation standards related to student learning. The Dentistry, D.D.S. met the Commission on Dental Accreditation’s related standard (Standard 2-25) on student competencies and the Dentistry, M.S.D. met the Commission on Dental Accreditation’s related standards (Standard 1 and Standard 1.3) on outcomes assessment and measurement of student achievement in their most recent reviews. The three Dentistry programs have complete and up-to-date assessment plans with well-written goals, objectives, measures, targets, and findings. The external review of the plans shows that the three programs’ plans are strong and each program has shown assessment plan improvements since the 2007–2008 assessment reporting cycle (see School of Dentistry scorecard). The B.S. reporting shows that the assessment results are used for continuous improvement. For example, the faculty report that they “identified evaluation mechanisms by levels of assessment (novice, beginner, competent)” and tied these to their courses and competency documents. The M.S.D. plan shows that faculty will focus on the need for multiple reviewers and inter-rater reliability. The D.D.S. uses both direct measures (e.g., board exams) and indirect measures (faculty survey, graduate surveys) to assess student learning outcomes. The Office of Assessment’s future work with the School of Dentistry will focus on clearly separating programmatic outcomes from student learning outcomes and developing additional direct measures for student learning in the B.S. and M.S.D. programs. School of Education The School of Education offers 20 degrees. Programs in the School met, in their most recent reviews, the standards for assessment of student learning established by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE; Standards 1 and 2), Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP; Section I.AA), and the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (CAATE; Sections H1, H2, and H3). The School has one representative on the VCU Assessment Council, Dr. Susan McKelvey, Director of Assessment, School of Education. A number of degree programs in the School, particularly the Secondary Education, M.T. and the Special Education, M.Ed., have created assessment plans for concentrations within the degree. According to our external consultant, all programs in the School of Education meet or exceed VCU’s threshold requirements for assessing student learning (see School of Education scorecard). The School of Education has committed substantial resources to assessment. The School has its own Office of Assessment, which is staffed by Dr. McKelvey and Mr. David Spivey, who serves as Data Manager. In addition to assessment reporting in WEAVEonline, all programs in the School that are accredited by NCATE make extensive use of rGrade TM to support their accreditation activities. rGrade is a web-based assessment system that allows faculty to embed rubrics at the course level, receive uploaded assignments from individual students, and use the rubrics to grade assignments online. In addition, rGrade houses data from standardized tests (e.g., PRAXIS I and II, and the Virginia Reading Assessment) and from measures that are not course-based (e.g., clinical evaluations, comprehensive Virginia Commonwealth University P a g e | 16
SACS/COC Fifth-Year Interim Report, Part III. exams). Data in rGrade can be aggregated for assessment purposes, and the aggregated data can be used to generate reports. For the 2008-2009 cycle, most programs in the School of Education have uploaded documents into the WEAVEonline document repository, including program data reports, summaries of standardized test results, and department-level spreadsheets describing the use of assessment findings for continuous improvement. The School of Education’s performance in assessment is quite strong overall. Nearly all of its programs have well-defined student learning objectives and effective measures, are consistently reporting detailed findings, and are using their findings for continuous improvement. A number of programs made noteworthy changes to strengthen their objectives and measures during the 2008-2009 cycle, particularly programs in the Educational Leadership Department and the Health and Human Performance Department. Currently, a few programs in the School could improve their assessment plans by increasing the specificity of their objectives and/or by providing evidence of inter-rater reliability for some of their measures. Based on their assessment findings, programs in the School have made a number of changes to enhance student learning. For example, in their 2008-2009 Department Use of Assessment Data document, the Teaching and Learning Department faculty reported on a finding for their reading programs and described a change that the programs had implemented: Lower overall scores on the philosophy of read[ing] paper on IRA [International Reading Association] Standard 1.3 on language and literacy. . . Action Taken: A required chapter on language acquisition was added to the reading foundations course. In some cases, in an effort to improve student learning, programs in the School have updated their curriculum and have improved their assessment measures. For example, the Adult Learning, M.Ed. program described the implementation of a new course and the development of several new rubrics: Based on different sources of data, program faculty have realized the need for another modification in the M.Ed. in Adult Learning curriculum: replacement of one of the three foundation courses (EDUS 661, Educational Evaluation: Models and Designs) with a new Adult Learning core course, Adult Literacy and Diversity. . . . Additionally, in an effort to foster continuous program improvement, seven rubrics (written communication, reflective practice, oral presentations, classroom participation, information competency, development as an adult learning professional, and team collaboration) were developed for the rGrade system to evaluate student progress each semester. Because these rubrics are new this year, we will be collecting evidence to establish reliability and validity, including inter-rater reliability on a larger number of evaluators. The Counselor Education, M.Ed. program provides another example of continuous improvement in the curriculum and the assessment process. The program also outlined changes that it implemented in supervisor training and in instructional materials: After reviewing data, the Counselor Education Department decided to implement a supervision course and expand the number of internship and practicum supervisors receiving training, as well Virginia Commonwealth University P a g e | 17
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