Dept. of Educational Leadership
Written Comprehensive
Examinations
Assessment Forum, April 18, 2014
Ball State University
Our Department
A little about us:
• Graduate department in Teachers College
• Seven full-time faculty members
• Candidates are primarily teachers and
administrators who are employed full-time in
schools.
Candidate Enrollment (fall 2013)
MAE – current in rGrade 334 (Principal license)
Ed.S. – current in rGrade 53 (Superintendent license)
Ed.D. – current in rGrade 68 (with or w/out Supt. license)
Department of Educational Leadership
Our Standards:
We follow the ELCC and Indiana Content
Standards for preparation of school leaders:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Vision
School Culture, Instruction, Curriculum
Management
Collaboration
Ethics
Political, Social, Economic, Legal, and
Cultural Context of Schools
Background on Comprehensive Exams
Our Ed.S. and Ed.D. candidates take written
and oral comprehensive examinations at the
end of their programs.
Exams are offered three times per year: winter,
spring and summer
We typically have 5-10 students take the comp.
exams each time
Our goals for improving the
comprehensive exams:
Improving relevancy
Maintaining rigor
Focusing on high levels of cognition
Aligning with best practices
Changes that have been developed and
implemented this school year include:
1. Case Study Approach – Integrated questions,
students appreciate “real-world” problems, mimics
testing approach for license, aligns with mission
2. “Take-Home” Portion - Double-edged sword (has
reduced time on campus, but we may need to place
limit on length and use of outside experts)
3. Improved Efficiency – Faculty now on a rotation
for content assigned for questions. Some questions
now used for both Ed.S. and Ed.D. One posting on
Blackboard for study focus. “Distinguished”
category has helped with assessment and provided
a “reward.”
Changes that have been developed and
implemented this school year include, cont.
4. Ed.D. Question on Dissertation – Has led to
helpful discussions with committee about
dissertation, proposal development, etc.
5. Standard-Based Rubrics for Assessment developed collaboratively by faculty, collaborative
scoring.
6. Blackboard Community for Faculty and
Candidates – Facilitates communications, e.g.,
faculty post study guides and rubrics, candidates
form study groups.
Assessing the comprehensive exams
for future changes:
1.We are carefully looking candidates’
performance on the new comp. exams.
2.We are holding “focus groups” to discuss
new process, format, and questions.
3.We are seeking, gathering, and considering
informal feedback from candidates.
This is a work in progress.
We plan to continue making changes, for
example:
1. Still working on “tweaking” rubrics and
scoring metrics
2. All professors providing timely scoring and
feedback to candidates
3. Modifications to take-home portion
4. Many changes have come and will continue to
come from candidate feedback
Dept. of Educational Leadership
Questions/Comments?
Please feel free to contact us for more
information:
Lori Boyland, lgboyland@bsu.edu
Marilynn Quick, mquick@bsu.edu