Assessment Report Standard Format
July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2012
PROGRAM ASSESSED: Criminal Justice Program
ASSESSMENT COORDINATOR: Tracey Steele
YEAR 3 of a 5 YEAR CYCLE
1.
ASSESSMENT MEASURES EMPLOYED
What was done? The Criminal Justice Program’s alumni survey was substantially revised for distribution, collection of employment and graduate school information were merged with the alumni survey, and exit interviews were conducted with seniors graduating from the program.
Who participated in the process? Data were gathered by the Program Director (Tracey Steele) and the Administrative Assistant (Mary Zurawka). Data analysis and report preparation was performed by the Program Director.
What challenges (if any) were encountered? No significant challenges occurred.
2.
ASSESSMENT FINDINGS
A. Objectives Assessed—Each of the following Program Objectives was evaluated in this assessment cycle. Senior exit interviews were the source of data for each of these objectives. These included:
1. Graduates will be prepared to assume their roles as effective and informed citizens.
2. Graduates will be prepared for employment in the field of criminal justice and related fields.
3. Graduates will be prepared to pursue study in graduate and professional schools.
In reference to Objective One, both quantitative measures and qualitative responses indicated that our majors felt well-prepared to assume their roles as effective and informed citizens. Our exit interview instrument (see attachment) includes 16 items relating to a variety of substantive and skill-based evaluative criteria (e.g. how effective the program was in providing them with research skills). Responses were based upon 5-point Likert response set (with 5’s representing the strongest level of agreement). Averages for each of the 16 indicators were well above the 2.5 midpoint. In fact, the lowest average score (3. 68 for oral communication) was the only indicator below 4.0. The grand mean across all items was 4.34. This average provides compelling evidence that our majors are highly satisfied with the skills and competencies provided by our program. As has been the case for each year that we have conducted exit interviews, the modal category for responses was 5—again, strong testament to how strongly students feel our program has prepared them for their post-graduate lives.
Qualitative responses echo the quantitative findings; students report feeling well-prepared and are highly satisfied with our curriculum and speak highly of the preparation and diligence of instructors who contribute to our program.
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In terms of Objective 2 and Objective 3, the vast majority of these seniors articulated a specific career or post-graduate educational aim. However, several also indicated that if their initial career goal was not met that they would turn to graduate school as an alternative. Regardless, only a small minority, (2) of the 28 program graduates specifically indicated they had no career or educational goals in mind. As has been true in past assessments, the three primary occupational fields sought by our students were, police, probation and parole, and corrections work. Students going on to graduate work were most likely to indicate that they were going to apply to a WSU graduate program or were law-school bound.
As noted in Section One of this report, in addition to exit interviews, this cycle we were tasked with beginning the collection of data to evaluate our three assessment objectives.
However, the actual evaluation of this data (data from alumni surveys and examination of the post-graduate educational and occupational information garnered from these surveys) is scheduled for the next assessment cycle (year four).
B. Learning Outcomes Assessed – None
1. Graduate will have substantive knowledge of procedures and operations in law enforcement, probation, parole or legal agencies.
2. Graduate of the program will be effective writers
3. Graduate will acquire practical experience in the field of criminal justice
While no learning outcomes are slated for evaluation this cycle, items from the quantitative portion of the exit interviews are nonetheless informative. For each of the outcomes listed above, there is an indicator in the exit interview that provides useful evaluative data. For example, relative to the first learning outcome, Item 16 queries students at to how well the program provided them with “Knowledge of procedures, investigative techniques, and operations in law enforcement, probation, parole or legal agencies ,” while Item 11 asks them about their preparation in the area of “applied skills”. Both of these items speak to the acquisition of substantive knowledge in the stated areas. Student responses to these items are high (means of 4.26 and 4.27 respectively) indicating substantial fulfillment of this outcome from the major’s perspective.
Similarly, Item 12 addresses students’ assessment of program efficacy in the area of writing
(relating to learning outcome two). This item posts a fairly solid mean at 4.07 on our 5point scale. Item 5 of the interview instrument concerns the value of the internship for our majors (which relates to learning outcome three). While a somewhat larger proportion of our majors had not yet completed the internship by the time of the exit interview (or placed out of it for reasons such as completing an internship at another institution or having the equivalence of one-year’s related occupational experience), student attainment of practical experience in the field by the time of graduation could easily be discerned from this item for the vast majority of our majors. Further, our majors ranked the importance of this program requirement quite highly (4.64 out of 5).
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3. RESPONSE TO ASSESSMENT FINDINGS
Program faculty will be encouraged to consider the addition of oral communication skills into their courses.
4. ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES FOR THE COMING YEAR
Learning Outcome Two (effective writing) is the Outcome slated for year four of our assessment cycle. Therefore, we will continue to collect student papers for the portfolio requirement. The portfolio will include student writing samples which will be used to measure fulfillment of this outcome. Alumni survey data will also be collected this cycle and though our assessment plan does not link the survey to learning outcomes, we will address the extent to which these surveys help us to discern accomplishment of all three of our program objectives.
5. UNIVERSITY LEARNING OUTCOME ASSESSMENT
WSU
University Learning Outcomes are as follows:
Wright State Graduates will be able to:
1.
Communicate effectively.
2.
Demonstrate mathematical literacy.
3.
Evaluate arguments and evidence critically.
4.
Apply the methods of inquiry of the natural science, social sciences, and the arts and humanities.
5.
Demonstrate global and multicultural competence.
6.
Demonstrate understanding of contemporary social and ethical issues.
7.
Participate in democratic society as informed and civically engaged citizens.
For the assessment cycle falling in the 2014-2015 school year (year one), our program will utilize a sample of student paper’s from student portfolio’s to assess Learning Outcome one—effective communication.
For the assessment cycle falling in the 2015-2016 school year (year two), our program will use evaluation of student transcripts to evaluate student’s global and multicultural competence (% attaining a grade of ‘C’ or better in our Foundation Area 4 - Diversity and
Ethics diversity courses).
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