4. The institution identifies expected outcomes, assesses the extent ...

SACS/COC Fifth-Year Interim Report, Part III.
School of Social Work
The School of Social Work offers the B.S.W., M.S.W., and Ph.D. degrees and an undergraduate certificate
in International Social Justice Studies. The undergraduate certificate is offered jointly with the School of
World Studies. The B.S.W. and M.S.W. programs met the accreditation standards of the Council on
Social Work Education for assessment of student learning (Standards 4.0.1-5) at their most recent
review. The School of Social Work has one representative on the VCU Assessment Council, Dr. E.
Delores Dungee-Anderson, M.S.W. Program Director. According to our external consultant’s review,
three of the four programs in the School of Social Work (B.S.W., M.S.W., and Ph.D.) meet or exceed
VCU’s threshold requirements for assessing student learning (see School of Social Work scorecard). The
School of Social Work does not yet have an assessment plan in WEAVEonline for the undergraduate
certificate program. However, as noted in previous sections, 2008-2009 is the first year that VCU
required assessment plans for certificate programs.
The M.S.W. program made noteworthy improvements in its assessment plan in the 2008-2009 cycle by
eliminating measures that were indirect or obsolete and by increasing the program’s reliance on direct
measures of student learning. Other examples of continuous improvement include the M.S.W.
program’s revision of its field instruction evaluation form. The form now correlates with the Council of
Social Work Education’s most recent (2008) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards and is
intended “to better identify and/or capture field instruction multidisciplinary variables.” The form is
being piloted in Fall 2009 with 40 field instruction students and will be used for all field instruction
students in Spring 2010 after incorporating any indicated modifications from the pilot data. For both
the B.S.W. and Ph.D. programs, the assessment plans could be improved by evaluating inter-rater
reliability of some of the measures. The Ph.D. program should include goals in its WEAVEonline plan.
University College
The University College awards two degrees, the Health Sciences post-undergraduate certificate and the
Interdisciplinary Studies, B.I.S. Dr. Seth Sykes, Assistant Dean, represents the University College on the
VCU Assessment Council. The courses for both degree programs are delivered by faculty from multiple
academic disciplines and departments. The external review for the bachelor’s degree program shows
that there is a solid plan in place with a need for improvement in inter-rater reliability for the portfolio
review (see University College scorecard). In addition, the Office of Assessment will work with faculty to
develop an additional direct measure to replace the indirect measures in the plan and to ensure that
data are collected and findings reported for academic year 2009-2010. The assessment plan for the
certificate was required for the first time in 2008-2009, as noted in previous sections. The Office of
Assessment will work with the University College to refine the student learning objectives, develop
direct measures with appropriate targets, and provide guidance in data collection and analysis for
continuous improvement.
2. Three Tiers of Quality
Assessment plans at VCU can be grouped into three tiers based on their quality. In this section,
examples of programs are provided for each tier and key features of the assessment reports are
highlighted. The WEAVEonline 2008-2009 Detailed Assessment Reports for these programs are
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