Graduates of the Counseling MA program are effective counselors.
Objective
Competency In Core Content Areas And Skills In Counseling.
Graduates in the Counseling MA program will be knowledgeable in the core content areas for community mental health counseling.
Indicator
Evaluations
1. To continue in the program, faculty must score counseling students on a scale of 0-7, with 5 and above being acceptable and program faculty preferring a score of 6 or 7 on the Counselor Potential Scale.
2. Ninety percent of the MA graduates will make a passing score on the National Board of Counselor Certification (NBCC) National Counselor Examination for Licensure.
Criterion
Passing Scores
1. To continue in the program, faculty must score counseling students on a scale of 0-7, with 5 and above being acceptable and program faculty preferring a score of 6 or 7 on the Counselor Potential Scale. 2. Ninety percent of the MA graduates will make a passing score on the National Board of Counselor Certification (NBCC) National Counselor Examination for Licensure.
We have reviewed the goals and objectives of two courses,COUN 6363 (Appraisal) and COUN 5392 (Social & Cultural Foundations) and have made efforts to address our weaker areas, Cultural Foundations and Appraisal, which were identified last year.
Finding
Results Of Counselor Potential Scale/NBCC Examination
1. For the school year 2012-2013, all of the students evaluted on the Counselor Potential Scale by counseling faculty received a score of 5 or better on the 7 point scale. 2. On the NBCC examination administered in October 2012, 13 students registered for and completed the examination and all 13 passed all four areas of the examination. 3. On the NBCC examination administered in April, 2013, 13 studetns registered for an completed the examination. Of the 13 students taking the examination, only one failed. With one of 13 students failing, our pass rate for this testing period was 92%.
Action
Maintain High Ratings And Pass Rate
The counseling faculty are pleased with the results of the Counselor Potential Scales and the NBCC Examination results. With scores of 5 or better on the Counselor Potential Scales, the faculty believe that the admission screening formula is effective in admitting students who are a good fit for the counseling program and who are maintaining high standards of compentency thereby, leading to effective community mental health counselors. Also, faculty are please with the pass rate of our students on the NBCC Examination. For the two testing dates of October 2012 and April 2013, a total of 26 students tested. Only one student failed the examination for a pass rate of 96%. The action for the upcoming school year, 2013-2014 is to continue preparing students as we have this past school year emphasizing CACREP standards and focusing on the new student learning outcomes of crisis counseling and substance abuse based on the new CACREP standards.
Goal
Professional Practice And Training
Candidates will engaged in an internship providiing supervised professional practice and training experiences.
Objective
Graduate Students Complete An Appropriate Professional Practice And Training Experience.
Students will successfully complete an appropriate professional practice and training experience by demonstrating a thorough understanding of the process of counseling.
Indicator
Site Supervisors Evaluation Form.
Site supervisors will complete and submit the Site Supervisor Evaluation Form to faculty teaching COUN 6386, Field Practicum (Internship for Counseling students) when student completes the field experience.
Criterion
At Least Meets Expectations.
All students enrolled in COUN 6386, Internship will be evaluated by their site supervisor. Items are scored on a scale of 1-6, with 3 and above being at the acceptable or exceptional level of performance. Program faculty prefer scores of 4-6. The site supervisor are to review the completed evaluation form with the student intern. Both site supervisor and student will sign and submit the evaluation to the faculty member teaching the course. Students will receive a rating of meets or exceeds expectations on all items of the Site Supervisor Evaluation Form.
Finding
Professional Practice And Skills
For the school year 2012-2013, all of the students enrolled in COUN 6386 Internship, were evaluated on all 36 items of the Evaluation Form with a rating of 4 (high end of Appropriate Acceptable Performance - middle category) or 5 and 6 (two options in the Exceptional Performance - highest category) with the exception of two students. These two students received scores of 3 (lowest option in middle category - Appropriate Acceptable Performance) on a combined total for 13 of the 36 items on the Evaluation Form. One of the student's performance was rated as 2 (high option in the lowest category of Requires Assistance). The student received a rating of 2 for item #27 - Utilizes appropriate assessment/diagnostic techniques when appropriate (may include DSM IV).
Action
Professional Practice And Skills
Based on the site supervisor's evaluation of one field internship student for item #27 - "Utilizes appropriate assessment/diagnostic techniques when appropriate (may include DSM IV)," with a score of 2, the faculty believe that this reflects a very strong program with sufficient content on the use of assessments. While only one student was evaluated with the low rating of 2, the faculty want to make sure that we strengthen our curricula content on assessment/diagnostic techniques especially in light of a new edition of the DSM (i.e., DSM-V). Therefore, faculty teaching COUN 5334, the course with the most student learning outcomes for assessment/diagnostic techniques, will spend more time than in the previous year on student's deveopment of this skill.
Goal
Knowledge Of Current Counseling Literature
Knowledge through literature reviews.
Objective
Graduate Students Will Demonstrate Knowledge Of Counseling Literature
Graduate students in the counseling program will demonstrate knowledge of current literature in counseling by preparing literature reviews of selected topics.
Indicator
Literature Review Rubric
Literature Review Rubric
Criterion
Scoring
Students will correctly evaluate and analyze professional journal articles by correctly assigning 75 out of 100 points on the rubric. We are anxious to determine if our intervention in COUN 5111 resulted in student performance in the APA format being strengthened this year.
Finding
APA Presented Review Of Current Literature
Some of the students enrolled in COUN courses with a student learning outcome of reading and critiquing journal articles struggle to avoid "summarizing" the articles rather than critiquing, evaluating, and synthizing the information presented in the professional articles. New students in the program have difficulty presenting critiques of journal articles in correct APA format. As students progress through the program and become more familiar with APA guidelines, critiques and reports of literature are presented in improved APA format.
Action
Assigned Readings And Literature Reviews
Student will be assigned more readings of professional journal demonstrating synthesis of previous research. While students are becoming more familiar with APA guidelines as they progress through the course, the counseling faculty would like to see student's develop compentencies with APA earlier in the program. Therefore, an APA grading rubric and APA Guidelines Assignment have been developed and faculty teaching courses in block one will be encouraged to add to student assignments.
Goal
Research Competence
Candidates are competent in research.
Objective
Graduate Students Will Demonstrate Competency In Research.
Counseling MA students will demonstrate competency in research; including design, methods, procedures, and evaluation of research in course COUN 5379, Research Methods.
Indicator
Research Project Grading Rubric
Students enrolled in COUN 5379, Research Methods will present a scholarly prepared and conducted research project demonstrating graduate level research skills.
Criterion
At Least 80 Points
Students must score 80 out of 100 points on the Research Project Grading Rubric. We are eager to determine whether our increased requirements to read and critique more research articles with a quantitative research design prior to beginning their research project improves students' final research paper/project.
Finding
Research Skills
For the school year 2012-2013, five students scored below 80% on the research project for COUN 5379. The area of greatest difficulty for these students was the analysis of data section specifically using SPSS to input data into the system and read statistical output of the data.
Action
Research Skills
Faculty teaching COUN 5379, Research Methods, will spend more time than in previous semesters demonstrating how to input data into SPSS. Students will be offered the opportunity to schedule appointments with faculty for one-on-one help with SPSS data entry procedures.