We are discussing the possibility of amending our criteria for the research objective include, having 50% of the program students having presented original research, at least once, at a state, regional, national, or international paper session each year. Each student in PSYC 5388 will be required to write three research papers using APA style.  Numbers from the new rubric are converted to percentages and passing requires a minimum of 80% on at least one of the papers.

 Although students are passing the comprehensive exams, we have not been able to delineate strengths and weaknesses.  In order to do so, a rubric will be used in the future.

Last year, in this Closing the Loop Summary section, we expressed concern about the lack of students involved in original research in this program. The number students engaged in these opportunities is on the rise and we fully expect these increases to continue. One of the main problems has been, in the past, a paucity of students enrolled in the program. Due to the efforts of the MA coordinator, we have increased our numbers from 4 to 7 over the past year and have an incoming class of 11 students (perhaps 12 as we await the decision of one last student). This is highly encouraging as a majority of those incoming students have expressed some level of interest in engaging in original research.

As for Foundational Competency, the credentials of the incoming class of MA General students are quite impressive: Mean GPA = 3.6; Mean GRE score = 1142. We have nothing but the highest expectations for these students and for our program.

We did not amend our research objective to having 50% of our students present original research at regional, national, and international conferences. If we had, we would not have reached criterion as only 4 of the cohort of 14 was actively engaged in research. One issue is that a great deal of the onus of being involved in research is on the student to seek out research opportunities. A second, even more important, issue is that many of our students, because of accessibility, are at The Woodlands Center. The only degree offered there is the non-thesis MA degree. Additionally, no faculty in our program have research labs at TWC and thus the opportunities. Thus, these students don't have the opportunity to engage in research at that campus.

We are revising our research criteria to only include those students at the Huntsville campus, as students at TWC do not readily have research opportunities available to them. The students at TWC invariably choose the non-thesis option for the degree. In addition, they typically express a lack of interest in being involved in research.

We developed a rubric that identifies specific types of information that must be addressed the in answers provided by the students. This information was developed by faculty members who are experts in the fields and who generated those questions that are on the comprehensive exams.

Last year, in this Closing the Loop Summary section, we expressed concern about the lack of students involved in original research in this program. The number students engaged in these opportunities is on the rise and we fully expect these increases to continue. One of the main problems has been, in the past, a paucity of students enrolled in the program. This fall, we will have an incoming class of 4 students. This is discouraging as the numbers are down from the previous year. We will meet with the University Graduate Office to determine what steps to take to increase our numbers and discuss ways of better advertising our program to the general public. This coming fall, we also will present programs for our better undergraduates to make them aware of the graduate school opportunities available in our department at SHSU.

As for Foundational Competency, the credentials of the incoming class of MA General students are quite impressive: Mean GPA = 3.4; Mean GRE score = 1117. The numbers are down a little from the previous year but the reduction is not statistically significant. As last year, we have nothing but the highest expectations for these students and for our program.