Kent State University
Assessment of Student Academic Achievement Plan
Sample Academic Department Plan

Outcomes Assessment Procedures

Undergraduate

  1. Major Field Achievement Test in Psychology. This test has been administered on a voluntary basis to psychology majors for several years. It would be desirable to make the testing a requirement for majors, but we are reluctant to do so until the College adopts such a requirement for all departments. The MFAT will be administered in spring semester each year.
  2. Alumni survey to determine admission to graduate or other professional schools and other employment after graduation. The survey will be conducted each fall semester to cover students who graduated in the preceding year.
  3. GRE scores for psychology graduates whenever the sample is sufficiently large to be reported. These scores will be available through the office of Academic Assessment and Evaluation Services. These scores will be examined each fall semester for all students who took the GRE in the preceding year.

Graduate

  1. Placement of Ph.D. graduate in both clinical and experimental psychology (alumni survey via phone and/or mail). This could be completed immediately for graduates for the past several years. The survey will be conducted each fall semester covering student who graduated in the preceding year.
  2. Clinical Ph.D. graduates -- performance on state licensure examinations. This typically occurs after one year of post-doctoral experience. This information could be obtained in the survey described in #1 above. This information will come from the survey which will be conducted each fall semester.
  3. Experimental and Clinical Ph.D. students -- publications, paper presentations, and grant funding obtained prior to completion of the final orals. This information is collected routinely in the Department. This information will be summarized each fall semester for the preceding year.
  4. Number of students completing Ph.D. programs relative to the number admitted. These data will be summarized each fall semester.
  5. Clinical Ph.D. students -- number of students obtaining internships in programs approved by the American Psychological Association. This information will be obtained from our clinical students each spring semester.

Use of Outcomes Assessment Results

Undergraduate

Scores on the Major Field Achievement Test in Psychology and on the Graduate Record Examination will be examined systematically by the Department. If scores indicate weaknesses in one or more areas, the undergraduate curriculum will be evaluated to determine if changes are in order to deal with the weaknesses. The alumni survey data will be examined by the Department to help us determine the extent to which we are meeting our missions of preparing students for professional schools and for employment in disciplines related to psychology. If data indicate that we are not being successful in achieving both of these objectives, we may want to consider modifying our undergraduate program, perhaps instituting more formal tracks for students who are preparing for professional schools and those students for professional schools or employment.

Graduate

The results of the survey of graduate alumni will be used by the Department to determine to what extent we are adequately preparing our students for employment in academic and applied settings. The information about internships that our students obtain will be evaluated systematically by the Clinical Training Committee. If our students are not successful in obtaining high quality internships, the Clinical Training Committee will evaluate the graduate clinical program to determine what change would make our students more competitive. Data concerning number of students completing our graduate programs relative to the number admitted will be examined by the Clinical and Experimental Training Committees. If our attrition rate is judged to be unacceptably high, we will try to determine the cause and institute appropriate changes in the graduate training programs. Data concerning research accomplishments of our student prior to graduation will be examined by the Clinical and Experimental Training Committees. If the

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