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/Supervisor Evaluation
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
80% Of Students Rated At Least 3.5 And 80% Would Hire If Possible
80% of business supervisors of 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
Employer/Supervisor Evaluation
100% of business/educational supervisors of family and consumer sciences interns/student teachers who attained the BS degree from August 2010 through May 2011 indicated that they would hire the intern/student teacher given the availability of a suitable entry-level management or beginning teacher position. In addition, of the eight interns who were rated by business supervisors, seven received a score of 3.5 or better. One received a score of 3, two received a score of 4, one received a score of 4.5, and 4 received a score of 5, all on a 5-point scale. Therefore, this criterion was met. This last bit of data was not available on the three student teachers due to the differences in the data collection process.
Action
Employer/Supervisor Evaluation
Because 100% of employers/supervisors indicated that they would hire the intern/student teacher if a suitable opening existed, this portion of the criterion was met. However, more useful feedback could be obtained if the "yes" option was divided into "hire with reservations" and "hire without reservations." Then for those who indicated "hire with reservations" it would be possible to ask what those reservations might be. That would give more meaningful results in terms of identifying areas where improvement is needed.
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 food 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 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.
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 Low Pass, Pass or High Pass on the content portions of the exam.
Finding
Knowledge And Skills
Of the 11 students who attained the BS degree in Family and Consumer Sciences from August 2010 through May 2011, 8 passed the content-area exam (72.7%), so this criterion was not met.
Action
Knowledge And Skills
In general, the BS students did not score as well as the BA students who are in a parallel program. This is somewhat disturbing since we are now requiring that all FCS general students who are pursuing teacher certification be filed under the BS degree program. However, a review of the individual students shows that two of the three students who did not pass this exam have documented, and somewhat severe, learning disabilities. One option might be to have students with documented learning disabilities complete this portion of the Exit Survey in an oral format rather than in a written one.
Goal
Computer Literacy
The Department of Family and Consumer Sciences will graduate students who have performed satisfactorily in the area of computer literacy through computer-based assignments in courses that are required of all FCS majors.
Objective
Computer Literacy
Students will demonstrate computer literacy through specific assignments in FACS 2368 (word-processing assignment and a budget assignment using a spreadsheet) and in FACS 4362 (a presentation using PowerPoint). Satisfactory completion of these three assignments will indicate achievement of basic computer literacy skills that students are projected to need as they graduate from FCS programs and enter the world of work.
Indicator
Computer Literacy
There is a specific rubric for each assignment.
Criterion
Computer Literacy
90% of family and consumer sciences majors who take the courses FCS 268 and FCS 462 during the 2009-2010 academic year will score 3 or better on a 5-point scale with 5 being the highest score and 1 being the lowest score on the three assignments that are required to meet this computer literacy competency. Examples of assignment sheets for these three assignments and rubrics for grading them are attached.
Finding
Computer Literacy
100% of students graduating with a BS in Family and Consumer Sciences from August 2010 through May 2011 received a score of 3 or better on a 5.0 scale. Of the eleven students, one received a score of 3.5, one received a 4, seven received a 4.5, and two received a score of 5, all on a 5-point scale. Therefore, this criterion was met.
Action
Computer Literacy
100% of students in this program met the university's requirements for computer literacy as part of the undergraduate curriculum. However, the instructors who teach the courses believe that additional work in the area of database management is needed.