Educational Psychology Program HLC Report (AY Prepared by Caron A. Westland & Jung-In Kim October 2011

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1 Page 1 University of Colorado Denver School of Education and Human Development Educational Psychology Program HLC Report (AY Prepared by Caron A. Westland & Jung-In Kim October 2011 Educational Psychology Program: Brief History The history of the Educational Psychology (EPSY) Program at the University of Colorado Denver is as old as the School of Education and Human Development herself. For over 40 years, one consistent program theme has been high quality foundational courses for most programs in the School, as well as for EPSY students pursuing the EPSY MA. Three other historical themes can be observed--a steady reduction in the number of academic units snuggled under the EPSY umbrella, a reduction of faculty in the EPSY/REM Program itself, and a steady increase in the number of EPSY students in the program. Elaborating these three themes will provide a partial but informative description of the EPSY Program s history. In the early 1970 s, the School of Education was spread across three University of Colorado campuses Boulder, Colorado Springs, and Denver. The Educational Psychology Division was large and included several programs Counseling, Special Education, School Psychology, Research Methods and, of course, Educational Psychology itself. Since about 1990, as the education units at each of the three University campuses gradually became more independent from each other, units within Education Psychology at Denver were permitted by Denver Deans to make their own programs free-standing. With the shift of faculty and programs from the EPSY Program and the revised routing of School Psychology (SPSY) students straight to the SPSY license and Specialist degree, rather than via getting an EPSY MA as a prelude to the SPSY license, it would be easy to conclude that the EPSY Program was short of students. Such a conclusion would be badly in error. Our MA students come from three sources. About 15 per year are walk-ins, about 15 per year enter after completing the campus teacher education program, and about 70 are admitted via EPSY s three partner schools, each of which is private and each has an alternative teacher certification program approved by the state of Colorado. Starting with Stanley British Primary School in Denver in 1994 with 15 interns, the partnerships now also include Friends School and Boulder Journey School (originally Make a Mess and Make Believe School) both in Boulder. In 1996, EPSY s work with partner schools was recognized as a

2 Page 2 Program of Excellence with a five-year grant from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education--the first such recognition by a program on the Denver Campus. At present, 2 FTE faculty support EPSY, with the promise of another FTE gradually coming in by way of the Educational Foundations program/umbrella. This FTE will be shared among program faculty and will be at the Senior rank (Full Professor). Even with the addition of a FTE contributing from the Educational Foundations program, the motto of the EPSY Program will likely remain Never before have so few contributed so much to so many. We are fortunate to have a consistent and steady supply of adjunct faculty/honorarium whose contributions are practical in nature. They are extremely committed to the program and our students/graduates. Educational Psychology Program: General Nature and Concentration Areas The School of Education and Human Development (SEHD) offers a broad array of degree programs for professionals and graduate students who intend to begin or advance a career in education or mental health. The mission of the SEHD is to prepare and inspire education and mental health leaders to have a profound impact in fostering student opportunity, achievement and success in urban and diverse communities. Located within the SEHD, the Educational Psychology program (EPSY) offers the Master s of Arts (MA) degree in Educational Psychology. EPSY prepares students for excellence and leadership, emphasizing the production and application of research-based knowledge about human learning and development in urban and other settings. The MA degree has been (?) designed to comprise five areas of concentration: Human Learning, Human Development, Research and Evaluation Methods, Assessment, and Individualized, as elaborated below. Assessment Plan: In response to the directive of the Interim Dean, we will be removing the Individualized Track as a program option. Also, since we have split from RSEM, they will share their plan for the Research and Evaluation Methods and Assessment tracks in their own individual HLC Report. MA in Educational Psychology--Human Learning: This program prepares students to apply research-based knowledge and to develop skills and attitudes that help to inform a wide range of practices and issues within the field of education. A program concentration in Human Learning is well matched to students who are interested in understanding educational psychology in terms of human learning by persons of all ages, particularly in

3 Page 3 formal education contexts. Course content emphasizes learning and related processes such as motivation and teaching. MA in Educational Psychology--Human Development: This program prepares students to apply research-based knowledge, and to develop skills and attitudes that can help address real-world challenges that impact learning environments. The Human Development concentration allows students to develop expertise in investigating or developing knowledge that is focused upon the cognitive, social, and physical development of children, adolescents and adults. Educational Psychology Program: Student Learning Outcomes and Data Sources The Educational Psychology program has identified three broad areas of leadership for students: Learning and Development, Instructional Decision- Making, and Research and Measurement. These three areas, while distinct from each other, also are overlapping. Students are expected to develop expertise in each of these three areas, but with varying degrees of emphasis depending upon their particular areas of study. The focus of the EPSY faculty s current and upcoming work is in the areas of learning and development more than in research methods. Several student learning outcomes are also being emphasized currently, based on our available data sources. Three sources supply the bulk of the data informing our program s present strengths, as well as its challenges. The data sources are: comprehensive exams (taken by all EPSY students at the conclusion of their programs); SEHD Exit Survey data (a questionnaire taken by all EPSY MA students just before the completion of their programs); and Live Text data pulled from the Child Study Performance-Based Assessment (PBA). Each of these data sources, and the student learning outcomes to which they relate, are now examined and will be used as future data sources. Learning Outcomes: Student Knowledge: The first set of student learning outcome being focused on now and this upcoming academic year is each student s knowledge of, and disposition toward, the field of educational psychology. The most relevant data source addressing this outcome is the comprehensive examination (taken by all EPSY students at the conclusion of their programs). Most of the questions on this exam deal with the students knowledge of the field, as well as applications of that knowledge to solving problems of practice. Additionally, for several years, one question has asked the student to evaluate the merit of the program received and how the program had influenced her/him currently, as well as its likely future impact. While the faculty s approach to this data source has been primarily to achieve reliable grading, the new plan is to discern if other more focused metrics or themes can be derived from students performance on comprehensive exams. A discussion

4 Page 4 about whether all EPSY students should take a recently reactivated course, EPSY 6000, Seminar in Educational Psychology will be under review this year. Learning Outcomes: Self-Assessment: A second set of student learning outcomes to be examined during the academic year involves a number of ratings made by the students finishing their Masters degree in EPSY--their collective self-assessments of their programs of study serves to highlight the status of several learning outcomes from a student perspective. The source of data for this outcome is the SEHD Exit Survey, a questionnaire taken by all EPSY MA students just before the completion of their programs. While there are several streams of students completing the EPSY MA, students who started in one of EPSY s three partner schools constitute a clear majority of the students completing the EPSY MA Option. Other distinct groups completing the MA include students who recently had earned a license in the SEHD s teacher licensure program, as well as walk ins who most often had heard about the discipline and the program through friends who were also EPSY students or through an analysis of the program via its website and/or its orientation sessions. The Exit Survey used by EPSY was written for several programs in the SEHD. It consists of 47 items. Our focus ended up being on Items 1 through 28, as 29 through 47 were mostly demographic, while a few of them were open-ended and were responded to by only 10 percent of the graduates at most. Even within Items 1 through 28, the EPSY faculty determined (prior to any analysis) that Items 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9 did not describe the EPSY Program well, as the items used terms much more familiar in counseling and school psychology than in EPSY (terms such as intervention, collaboration, mental health, agencies, clients, etc.). Therefore, those six items were not included in further analyses. Finally, noting that Items 18 and 27 were redundant, their similar values were averaged, and they were treated as a single item. EPSY Program Faculty will be actively involved in submitting future Exit Survey Items to better align with program goals and assessment plans. The 21 remaining items were each converted to a single numerical rating using a four-point scale. On a given item, responses were assigned one of four numbers (that is, Strongly Agree = 4, Agree = 3, Disagree = 2, and Strongly Disagree = 1). Graduates Satisfaction: While overall students state they are satisfied with their learning about learning theory, faculty must continue to increase students perceptions about their learning process. The program faculty believe that the Student Services must take an active role in advising students at the onset in order to maintain a level of satisfaction regarding the program. Program satisfaction will not only be connected to

5 Page 5 course knowledge, but also advising and securing employment related to their field of study. Assessment Plan: EPSY will work with the assessment staff (Dave Gavisk & Carolyn Haug) to revise the exit survey to be more responsive to the needs of the EPSY program and to inform the decision-making process. We would like to create Key Questions that could be added to the standard questions. In future reports, we will consider analyzing program satisfaction, content learning, and employment. Learning Outcomes: Child Study/PBA: For accreditation purposes, several years ago the EPSY faculty developed a Performance Based Assessment (PBA) around an existing EPSY course taken by all partner school interns entitled Child Study and Observation (EPSY 5260). We believed we were focusing on a crucial capability of educators being able to observe carefully children (or adults) whom they were teaching, and being skilled at applying theoretical interpretations to the child behaviors and characteristics observed. Assessment Plan: A scoring rubric with three level of performance--below proficient, proficient, and above proficient-- was crafted. Student performances in the course will be submitted to Live Text. The essential elements of that course will be analyzed. Transition Points Progress toward the competencies is assessed in all core courses, including the internship. Key points of assessment will include: Transition 1: Entry to Program Applicants must meet the general requirements of the UCDHSC Graduate School Applicants must have completed an undergraduate program. GPA of 2.75 Undergraduate; 3.5 Graduate. GRE = 1000 for graduates <2.75 GPA At least 3 recommendations

6 Page 6 Assessment Plan: EPSY program will collect data with regards to the entry into the program Acceptance Rate (determined by the number of acceptances/number of applicants) o Data for Fall 2011 Applicants: 34 Applicants, 30 Acceptances (not including RSEM) Program Options (we will collect data on the number of applicants applying for each program track as a way to determine which tracks can be removed/consolidated) o Data for Fall 2011 Applicants: Human Development Track (5), Human Learning Track (1), Individualized Track (2), Partner School (22), RSEM (2), Incomplete Applications (4) Transition 2: Education Coursework 36 hours relevant course work (9 core); Thesis, internship or practicum. End of Course Grades (no grade less than B-) Performance based assignments associated with specific courses Transcript reviews to track (a) grades in education courses and (b) progress toward completing academic content requirements Assessment Plan: EPSY program will collect data with regards to the Education Coursework Successful Completion of coursework (SEHD staff will do a transcript review to track successful completion of coursework and identify how many students have coursework with a grade lower than a B-) Tracking of options (The Thesis, internship, or practicum option will be tracked per semester to determine which option is most used for the program. Transition 3: Practicum/Internship/Comprehensive Exam Internship/Practicum. Some students, including K-12 teachers complete supervised field work wherein they apply concepts and strategies to reallife problems. Transcript Reviews. Transcript Reviews track (a) grades in education courses and (b) progress toward completing academic content requirements. A review at this stage is used to develop the Comprehensive Exam. Comprehensive Exam. Students demonstrate mastery of assessment, human development, human learning or research methods by answering advisor-directed questions that cover graduate school experiences.

7 Page 7 Assessment Plan: EPSY program will collect data from students with regards to the preference of options for exiting the program EPSY program will review exit projects from other programs/universities with regards to altering the comprehensive exam to include a literature review, journal submission, or a book review. o Data Point: Kenny Wolf has shared that the Anschutz campus requires a journal publication for Ph.D. programs EPSY program will also review the exit data as it relates to the following: Dispositions (IDI) pre-test data (intercultural) Persistence (stayed in the field) Performance (how are they doing in the job) Students pursuing a Ph.D or Ed.D Finish in timely fashion o Data Collection: Carolyn Haag & Dave Gavisk (the assessment staff) will consult with the Alumni Office to determine what information we might be able to secure from our graduates Program Planning Program planning for the upcoming year will include: Integration of LiveText assessment tracking into courses training program faculty, honorarium faculty and identifying key courses/final projects to consider for assessment (Cognition & Instruction; Educational Foundations; Human Motivation will be potential options) Review of existing EPSY courses, including consideration of updates for course content. Consideration of new EPSY courses, including Motivation course either primary or secondary students. Consideration of online and hybrid versions of courses offered in the existing curricula. Review of MA program options; streamline course offerings to limit what student are taking Review the Comps process and determine if another option might be more appropriate/meaningful (i.e., book review, literature review, or typical comprehensive exam) These and other developments will be informed by an ongoing assessment of student performance, student input Summary Using several data sources--the EPSY MA comprehensive exam and the SEHD Exit Survey--a number of tasks to be undertaken in are envisioned. These tasks were directed at both student learning outcomes and program

8 Page 8 improvement (that indirectly could also facilitate student learning outcomes). The tasks outlined are fairly extensive, so it may be necessary to place them in priority order depending on the personnel resources available to address them. We will utilize the assessment information gathered to inform practice/program data decision-making. We are committed to program improvement and a culture of student learning with measureable learner outcomes.