OATdb Archive - Sam Houston State University

OATdb Archive

2013 - 2014

Special Education MED (Educational Diagnostician)

Goal

Mastery Of SBEC Knowledge And Skills

Educational Diagnostician students will demonstrate mastery of knowledge and skills set forth by SBEC.

Objective

Mastery Of SBEC Knowledge And Skills

Graduates will demonstrate competencies in assessment and evaluation as set forth by the State Board of Education Certification (SBEC) for diagnostician certification. The four domains included in the test are: (1) Students with disablities, (2) Assessment & Evaluation, (3) Curriculum & Instruction, (4) Foundations and Professional Roles and Responsibilities.

Indicator

Texas Examination Of Knowledge & Skills

TExES for Educational Diagnosticians developed by the Education Testing Service (ETS)

Criterion

Pass Rate

85% of candidates will pass Domain II of the TExES, a measure of knowledge of Assessment and Evaluation skill. This is the same area identified as weaker two years in a row. Criterion will remain at 85% as we strive to extensively focus on this area.

Finding

TeXes Assessment Domain 2

88% of candidates passed Domain II of the TExES, a measure of knowledge of Assessment and Evaluation skill. This is an increase of 9.4 % over last year's score of 83%. This met and surpassed our criteria at 85%.

Goal

Mastery Of CEC Knowledge And Skills

Candidates will demonstrate mastery of knowledge and skills on comprehensive examinations referenced to the standards set forth by the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC) Knowledge and Skills for Educational Diagnosticians.

Objective

Mastery Of CEC Knowledge And Skills

Indicator

Comprehensive Exams Rubric

Faculty-developed rubric scored independently by faculty members in the specialization area following standards of CEC

Criterion

Pass Rate On Comprehensive Exams

100% of candidates will achieve 80% of all possible points or more on the comprehensive exam rubric. Since 100% of candidates reached the 75% criterion last year, we will raise the criterion to 80% of all possible points. The area we identified for improvement is the area of theories. We will be eager to determine whether our interventions have an impact in 2012-2013.

Finding

Comprehensive Exam Assessment Results

Only 37% of our candidates passed the comprehensive exams at the 80% criteria. This is a significant decrease in the passing rate and does not meet our criteria of 100%. With only 12 candidates out of 16 met last year's criteria of 75%.

Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement Faculty gathered during a special education program retreat and reviewed and revised content for Sped 5301 and instituted a new cohort system for the graduate diagnostician program. The new cohort model emphasizes the administration and application of testing instruments along with intervention strategies. The Sped 5301 online course was revised to include ethics, response to intervention, coteaching models and ethics. A new course was developed; Sped 6313 Seminar in Learning Disablities which includes cognitive theories.

Plan for continuous improvement One intervention is to encourage students to use the wirting center on campus for editing their comprehensive exam essays. A second intervention is to redesign the comprehensive rubric to align more closely to the new Council for Exceptional Children's (CEC) standards. Additionally, all candidates in the Master Diagnostician Program will be required to attend a workshop on writing comprehensive exams which will be initiated after candidates are enrolled in each new cohort. The scope and sequence of coursework will be organized to provided foundational knowledge first and testing courses given in sequence. Finally, 4 additional courses will be added to the new Post Master Cohort (sped 5301,6313,5304,and 5303). All students in the program will be required to take and pass the comprehensive exams. Data will be collected on the pass rates for comprehensive exams for students in the Master Educational Diagnostician program and compared to last year's scores. Data from the TeXes scores will also be collected and compared to scores from 2013-2014 year.