The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will graduate general Family and Consumer Sciences majors who perform well in employment positions within the field.
Objective
Demonstration Of Applied Professional Competence
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
Employer Evaluation Data
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-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 (FCS 469). The other programs that use this same form are interior design, food service management, and fashion merchandising.
Criterion
Employer Evaluation Data
80% of business supervisors of food service management 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
Employee Evaluation Data
90% of business supervisors of family and consumer sciences interns gave the intern a rating of 3.5 or higher on a 5.0 scale with an average score of 4.43 and 90% of business supervisors indicated that they would hire the intern given the availability of a suitable entry-level management position in the company.
Action
Employer Evaluation Data
This finding exceeded the criterion that was established, and it is good to see the overall positive supervisor response to the interns and student teachers from this program who are preparing to enter the job market. One additional idea for the 2009-2010 cycle would be to formulate a way to better use the input from the supervisor evaluation forms so as to identify specific ways and means for improving specific areas of student performance. Information on areas that need improvement is either collected or available for collection from both business supervisors and mentor teachers, and could and should be used appropriately for program improvement.
Goal
Student Knowledge Of Content Area
The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will graduate General Family and Consumer Sciences majors who have an in-depth knowledge of the content areas of the major.
Objective
Knowledge And Skills
Students graduating from the family and consumer sciences program will demonstrate the knowledge and skills necessary for entry-level positions in the field.
Indicator
Exit Survey - Knowledge And Skills
The Exit Survey for 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 holistic and, we believe, 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. For AY 2009-2010, a standardized grading rubric will be developed.
Criterion
Knowledge And Skills
At least 80% of students who complete the family and consumer sciences program's Exit Survey will score a grade of Pass or High Pass on the content-specific portion of the exam. Exams are being graded holistically to this point, but for the next assessment period (AY 2009-2010), a standardized grading rubric will be developed.
Finding
Student Knowledge Of Content Area
A 100% pass rate was achieved on the content portions of the family and consumer sciences content portion of the Exit Survey. Exams are being graded holistically to this point, but for the next assessment period (AY 2009-2010), a standardized grading rubric will be developed.
Action
Knowledge And Skills
The content portion of the Exit Survey very much needs to be updated, and once that is accomplished, a standardized grading rubric needs to be developed.
Goal
Student Satisfaction
Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will graduate students who are satisfied with a degree in general family and consumer sciences.
Objective
Student Evaluation Of Program Content, Networking And Professional Organizations
Students will evaluate and express their satisfaction with the degree program learning experiences such as program content provided in degree program course work, opportunities for networking, and participation in professional organizations provided by degree program activities. While student evaluation of program-related learning experiences is a performance outcome, rather than a student learning outcome, it does provide degree program faculty with very valuable feedback based upon students' abilities to reflect upon the value of their educational activities.
Indicator
Student Evaluation Of Program Content, Networking And Professional Organizations
The comprehensive Family and Consumer Sciences Exit Survey includes a student rating of the program content in the major and student rating of opportunities that were provided by the program to network and engage with professional organizations. Student ratings of these items will be extracted and analyzed to determine the level of student satisfaction with their learning experiences in these areas. A higher score indicates a higher level of satisfaction. The Exit Survey is a comprehensive instrument collaboratively developed, several years ago, by faculty of FCS degree programs, and also to test student knowledge in their program's content area. Although it is periodically reviewed for improvement by current faculty, most of the Exit Survey items remain stable from year to year. The Exit Survey is administered in paper form to students in several FCS Departmental degree programs. Student feedback pertaining to different degree program majors are differentiated and analyzed separately. A copy of the section of the Exit Survey which pertains to the student feedback has been attached.
Criterion
Exit Survey - Student Evaluation Ratings > 3.0
80% of graduating seniors who complete an Exit Survey will rate the program content and opportunities for networking and professional organization participation in the major with a score of 3.0 or greater. A 4.0-point scale will be used for rating, where a higher score indicates a higher satisfaction rating.
Finding
Student Survey - Student Evaluation Of Content, Networking, Professional Organizations
Those graduating seniors completing the Exit Survey rated the program content and networking and professional organization participation with an average score of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
Action
Student Evaluation Of Content, Networking, Professional Organizations
This finding exceeded the established criteria for these three areas of student evaluation. However, in general, opportunities for networking need to be further developed. Organizations and classes need to be encouraged to invite outside speakers, and these presentations need to be better publicized throughout the department. More emphasis and publicity need to be given to various career fair and career day activities so that students are better able to take advantage of them.