UPDATES OF PROGRAM ASSESSMENT PLANS FOR FALL 2005

Early Childhood Education

 

 

Introduction:

            The Early Childhood Education Department is playing catch-up in the assessment process.  With a new Chair on board for only a short time, this report will reflect plans for developing AND implementing assessment of the department as mandated by the Assessment Committee.

            Since the Science Department has a big head start, they have become the mentor and model for ECE’s plans.  This will become obvious as we attempt to modify their work to evaluate the ECE program.

 

Learning Outcomes:

  1. Students will demonstrate competence in communication
  2. Students will demonstrate competence in critical inquiry.
  3. Students will demonstrate competence in ECE occupational skills including understanding and developmentally appropriate practice, professional interaction with children and adults, observations of children and teachers, and executing skillful teaching techniques.

 

Benchmarks and Data Collection:

Pre-tests will be taken at the beginning of ECE101—Introduction to Early Childhood Education and Post-tests will be taken at the end of ECE102—Early Childhood Lab Techniques.  An average improvement of at least 10% will be the goal over this two-semester sequence. 

A lifelong skills survey will be given as part of the post-test.

            Occupational Skills will be assessed at the end of the practicum/lab courses. ECE102 comes early in the program and ECE288 is one of the last courses taken.

            All data will be stored in the ECE Chair’s office.

 

 

Measures used for each objective:

  1. Critical inquiry:  The ECE faculty will develop a critical inquiry assessment test.  The test will consist of a series of multiple choice questions that will test their growing knowledge, comprehension and application of knowledge that is important in teaching young children.
  2. Communication:  The students will be asked to write a brief opinion paper in response to a given statement.
  3. A sample of ECE students will be surveyed regarding their exposure to the lifelong skills.  This is the indirect measure.
  4. The students’ occupational skills will be directly observed by expert adjunct faculty and teacher mentors in childcare centers and assessed using a rubric to be developed.  Students will be evaluated as expert, proficient, somewhat proficient, and not proficient.

 

Data Analysis and Reporting

Decision Making and Program Change Based on Data: 

            Since the ECE program is starting fresh, no new data is currently available for analysis.  Some past changes resulting from past assessments are still in affect (such as a writing tutor available to ECE students two times per week in the resource room), but additional decisions will be made regarding program changes after the first data is collected at the end of Spring semester, 2006.

 

Adjunct Faculty Involvement:

            A handful of adjunct faculty will be involved in creating the questions for the tests and evaluations that will be used.  All faculty will be involved in analysis and suggestions for changes.  The adjunct faculty that teach the courses in which students are measured will be responsible for the administering the assessments with support from the ECE chair. 

 

 

Report prepared by Jan Leversee, ECE chair