SACSCOC Fifth Year Interim Report
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Assessment : 2012 - 2013 : 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-yes, hire with reservations-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 (FACS 4369). 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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| A total of fourteen students graduated with the BS degree in Family and Consumer Sciences, and employer evaluations were collected on 11 of these (two were becoming certified to teach family and consumer sciences so they were not subject to the internship requirement). Of the eleven, one (9%) received a rating of 5, another received a rating of 4.9 (also 9%), 4 received a rating of 4.5 (27%), five received a rating of 4 (45%), and one received a rating of 3 (9%). Therefore, this criterion was met. Of the eleven whose employers/supervisors were asked whether he/she would hire the intern for a suitable, entry-level position, all eleven indicated they would (100%), and indeed several had already been hired by the supervisor under whom the internship was completed. Therefore, this criterion was met. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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We modified the evaluation form this past cycle to include three options rather than two (yes or no) as there had been in the past. This time we divided the “yes” option into “yes, hire without reservation” and “yes, hire with reservation” in the hope of getting additional feedback for program improvement. However, although we received both "yes" responses, there was little feedback, so we plan to modify the process. |
| 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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| Data is available on 12 of the 14 students who graduated with the BS degree in Family and Consumer Sciences for the 2012-2013 cycle. Of the 12, three students received a rating of High Pass (25%) and 9 received a rating of Pass (75%) on the Exit Survey (one student took the national certifying exam and passed that rather than the Exit Survey -- see below). Therefore, this criterion was met. Of the 14 students, two became/are becoming certified Family and Consumer Sciences secondary teachers upon graduation. In order to achieve this goal, they must pass the national certification exam for family and consumer sciences sponsored by the national organization, American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. This is a stringent exam and covers all of the content areas under the FCS umbrella. One student has passed this exam, and the other's status is unknown at the time of this writing (July 29). Overall, the passage rate for students from this department who take this exam is over 90%, indicating that the subject matter content for this program is very strong. |
Actions for Objective:
| Action |
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100% of students who completed the BS in Family and Consumer Sciences for the 2012-2013 cycle scored a grade of High Pass or Pass on this exam (3/12 scored a grade of High Pass and 9/12 scored a grade of Pass). Because 100% of student scored passing grades on this instrument, we are working with the idea of abandoning this instrument and instead using the scoring on fourteen professional skills identified as critical to professional success on the Performance Appraisal of Student Intern as completed by the Internship Supervisor. |
| 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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| At least 90% of family and consumer sciences majors who take the courses FACS 2368 and FACS 4362 during the 2012-2013 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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| Seven out of 9 students who completed the course in which the word-processing and spreadsheet projects were assigned made a grade of 4 or 5 (77.8%), and the other two students did not complete this project giving them a grade of 0. Therefore, this criterion was not met for these two areas -- word-processing and spreadsheet. Six students (100%) who completed the course in which the PowerPoint presentation was required all scored a 5 on that assignment; therefore, this criterion was met for the PowerPoint area of computer literacy. |
Actions for Objective:
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We are looking into the matter of the students who did not complete the assignments, although they did receive passing grades for the course. This assignment is given in an on-line course, and we believe it is the specific project that is targeted for this report that is the problem, and that perhaps this is not the best measure of students' computer literacy. Yet the university requires that we measure and report results regarding computer literacy, and this is the means that was chosen and that worked well at one time. Overall, it is obvious that students are entering the university with good computer literacy skills and are further developing these skills during their time as undergraduate students. |
| Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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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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| Update on Previous Cycle's "Plan for Continuous Improvement" |
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A much better data set was collected as compared with the past few years. Faculty who teach the spreadsheet assignment have seen improvement in student performance on that assignment when it is submitted. Also, in response to student request, we are offering a course specifically in event planning for fall, and the numbers enrolled are encouraging -- 24 students already are enrolled and we are a month out from the beginning of the fall semester! Employers and supervisors continue to be very complimentary of the knowledge and skills students bring to the internship and which will be translated into "real world" assets as students go forward from the program. Two of the students in the BS program are part of the teacher certification program. That portion of the program does need growth to meet market demand. (See the "findings" section of the Knowledge and Skills Goal above.)
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| Plan for Continuous Improvement |
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The plan for the coming year is to improve the assessment piece through use of the fourteen professional skills identified on the internship supervisor evaluation form. Students from this program continue to do very well, and some sort of tangible recognition for their efforts is needed. We are working with Continuing Education to craft a certificate in event planning which should be a major boon to the program and also garner it well-deserved attention from the university community in general.
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