SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2011 - 2012 : Educational Programs :
Family and Consumer Sciences BS
Family and Consumer Sciences BS
3 Goals 3 Objectives 3 Indicators 3 Criteria 3 Findings 3 Actions
| GOAL: Internship Evaluation |
| Objective |
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| Students graduating from the general family and consumer sciences program will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level positions as family and consumer sciences professionals. |
| Indicator |
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| The supervisor evaluation form for family and consumer sciences interns evaluates three skill areas (personal skills, interpersonal skills, and professional characteristics including appropriate use of knowledge from the program content). Both questions from this form used as indicators are essentially overall supervisor ratings of the intern. One of them rates the interns on a Likert-type scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest rating and 5 being the highest rating. The other is a "yes-no" indicator of whether the employer would hire the intern in the company for an entry-level management position. Internship is a requirement for degree completion in this program, so all family and consumer sciences students are evaluated in this way. The instrument, which includes the supervisor rating of the intern that will be extracted and reported, was developed by the department faculty as a whole. Instruments used by other family and consumer sciences colleges and departments were reviewed in the development of the instrument. The attached instrument was designed to be generic for all programs in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences that require this type of internship and is published in the Internship Handbook, which serves as the textbook for the internship courses (FCS 469). The other programs that use this same form are interior design, food service management, and fashion merchandising. |
| Criterion |
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| 80% of business supervisors of interns will give the intern a rating of 3.5 or higher on a 5.0 scale and 80% of business supervisors will indicate that they would hire the intern given the availability of a suitable entry-level management position in the company. |
| Finding |
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| Data was collected on 14 of the 15 graduates of the BS in Family and Consumer Sciences. Of the 14, 12 (85.7%) were rated 3.5 or higher by their business/student teaching supervisors. In addition, 12 (85.7%) of the business/student teaching supervisors stated that they would hire the intern/student teacher for a suitable, entry-level position within the company or school. Therefore, this criterion was met. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| Although this goal is met and exceeded (however not at 100%), additional feedback would be helpful. During last year's cycle, it was suggested that we attempt to gather additional information by dividing the "Yes, would hire" option into "Yes, would hire without reservation" and "Yes, would hire with reservations." For those who checked "Yes, hire with reservations," we could then ask an open-ended question that would give us feedback that could be used for program improvement. We will make a stronger attempt to implement that process for the coming year. For one thing, it means that we need to draft an immediate update of our Internship Handbook. |
| GOAL: Student Knowledge Of Content Area |
| Objective |
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| Students graduating from the family and consumer sciences program will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level positions in the field. |
| Indicator |
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| The Exit Survey for food family and consumer sciences majors includes multiple-choice and short-answer sections that test retention of course material; it is graded on a pass/fail basis. (Each program area has multiple-choice, short answer, and other questions that are specific to that program content.) To develop this instrument, faculty in the content area reviewed course and program objectives and chose questions from exams that reflected important concepts that students should retain. The test is used repetitively and the scoring is consistent. For security reasons, the "test" portion (multiple-choice questions, short essay questions, and case study) is not attached. However, this document is available in the chair's office. |
| Criterion |
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| At least 90% of students who complete the family and consumer sciences program's Exit Survey will score a grade of Low Pass, Pass or High Pass on the content portions of the exam. |
| Finding |
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Of the students who attained the BS in Family and Consumer Sciences in the period from August 2011 through May of 2012, data was collected on 10 of 15. One of them scored a low pass, one scored a high pass, and 8 scored a grade of Pass. Four of these were FCS certification students, and their scores were reported as pass/fail only (i.e., high pass and low pass were not used). For these four, the content-based exam is the national certifying exam for family and consumer sciences. Therefore, this criterion was met. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| Based on last year's cycle, we raised the percentage criterion from 80% to 90%. However, because the number of graduates in this program are low (often 10-15), raising the criterion higher than this would be meaningless since a single person with a failing score would make the difference as to whether this criterion was met. Students appear to be retaining program content well. However, a more concerted effort needs to be made to collect data on more program graduates (2/3 of graduates is not a good collection rate). |
| GOAL: Computer Literacy |
| Objective |
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| Students will demonstrate computer literacy through specific assignments in FACS 2368 (word-processing assignment and a budget assignment using a spreadsheet) and in FACS 4362 (a presentation using PowerPoint). Satisfactory completion of these three assignments will indicate achievement of basic computer literacy skills that students are projected to need as they graduate from FCS programs and enter the world of work. |
| Indicator |
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There is a specific rubric for each assignment. |
| Criterion |
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| 90% of family and consumer sciences majors who take the courses FACS 2368 and FACS 4362 during the 2011-2012 academic year will score 3 or better on a 5-point scale with 5 being the highest score and 1 being the lowest score on the three assignments that are required to meet this computer literacy competency. Examples of assignment sheets for these three assignments and rubrics for grading them are attached. |
| Finding |
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| 89.3% of family and consumer sciences majors pursuing the BA degree who took one or both of the courses FACS 2368 and FACS 4362 during the 2011-2012 academic year scored 3 or better on the assignments used to measure computer literacy. Therefore, this criterion was almost met, but not quite. For the last cycle, it was decided that instructors who teach the courses believed additional work in the area of database management was needed. Database management still appears to be weak as compared to written assignments using word-processing programs and development of PowerPoint presentations. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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| At the conclusion of the reporting period, the department will convene a meeting of those faculty who make the budget assignment to see how student performance on this assignment could be improved. |
| Closing the Loop |
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Overall, this program is doing well, meeting or exceeding the criteria set for the various program indicators. Students leave with practical skills needed for employment as event planners, professionals in social service and non-profit agencies, managers in retail settings for consumer goods, and certified as secondary teachers of family and consumer sciences. It was determined that more feedback is needed from internship and student teaching supervisors that could be obtained with only a slight change in the evaluation form, and that change is being implemented for the group that will be completing the internship requirement during Summer 2012. This is one program where there needs to be greater effort in collecting a complete data set, and strategies for doing that have been discussed. Finally, while students graduate with adequate computer skills, additional work in database management is needed. In general, employers and student teaching supervisors are very complimentary of the knowledge and skills program graduates bring to the real world job market.
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