SEE HIGH-LIGHTED PORTION

INTRODUCTION

In 2009, the Office of Knowledge Management and Assessment (KMA) requested information from the graduate school and the registrar’s office to assist in assessing graduate programs’ progress over the past two years and facilitate the revisioning process.. This dataset reflected enrollment as of August 15th of the stated year, and it is first summarized then is later compared with the data found in other surveys and assessments throughout those same years.

OVERVIEW OF THE DATA

Seven major descriptors were included in this data set, and were separated by year (as described above) and program code. The first, enrollment, demonstrated tremendous overall growth in graduate programs over the last two years. As of August 15, 2006, graduate enrollment was at 919 students overall; however, as of August 15, 2008, graduate enrollment had increased to 987. The program with the most enrolled students (as of August 2008) is the distance Master’s degree program in School Administration (n=110), and the program with the smallest enrollment is the Business and Marketing Master’s program (n=1).

The next descriptor is the Grade Point Average (GPA), measured on a four-point scale and averaged by all students and separated by year and program. From 2006-2008, the highest average GPA belonged to the Curriculum and Instruction (CI) PhD program: 3.976. Special Education (3.393) held the lowest average GPA for all three years. These averages are still very high, and demonstrate the students’ strong content knowledge in their respective fields.

Gender and ethnicity are the next student characteristics highlighted by this dataset. Females continue to dominate the enrollment in the Educational Unit, consistently comprising bout 72% of the enrollment over the two-year period. Ethnicity, however, appears to be continuously changing. In 2006, minority populations were less than ¼ of the total enrollment (24.3%, n=223). In 2007, the population increased to 268, becoming 28.4% of the total enrollment. Finally, in 2008, the minority enrollment reached 292, about 30% of the total enrollment at that time. Minority populations are increasing in their attendance at NCSU in these graduate degree programs in education.

By program, age has not drastically changed over the past two years. Each program appears to remain in the same basic categories for age. In 2008, the program with the youngest students, on average, was the Master’s degree program in Social Studies (CSS; 27.8 years). The Educational Administration and Supervision (EAZ) program has the oldest students (44.1 years).

Next, the number of students that had submitted a plan of work, another descriptor, demonstrates that students are moving through the programs. In 2006, 485 of 919 total students had submitted their plan of work. In 2007, the number dropped to 293 of 947 students, perhaps because students matriculated through their program and graduated. Finally, in August 2008, the number of students that had submitted their plan of work fell to 63 (of 987 students). Enrollment is increasing, and students are continuing through their degree program, matriculating, submitting their plan of work, and following through consequently. The Grad School numbers include MED option B students who file a separate plan. Data have been requested to review this discrepancy.

Finally, the number of full and part-time students is the last descriptor addressed in the dataset. Without a doubt, a small percentage of students in graduate degree programs are full-time. In 2006, full-timers comprised 29.3% of the population; in 2007, 31.3%; and in 2008, 27.9%.

DATA COMPARISON

The data presented in this dataset illustrate the growth and apparent appeal of online programs. For example, students, in the graduate alumni survey of 2008, mentioned their desire for more online courses. Also program coordinators, in their program coordinator reports for 2008-2009, mentioned their need to offer more courses, especially online offerings. According to enrollment in this dataset and comments made the Graduate Alumni Survey and the Program Coordinators reports, numbers seem to support this mode of instruction.

With increasing enrollment, students appear to be satisfied or very satisfied with their programs. Steady enrollment and the programs’ steady age may be indicators that students are staying in their degree program and are satisfied. In the Graduate Alumni Survey, alumni also reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their programs. Students report that they are satisfied with their field work experiences, but that

Additionally, the Graduate Alumni Survey, along with this dataset (GPA) and data from the IHE report, demonstrate strong content knowledge of NCSU Education graduates. In the Graduate Midpoint and Culminating Essays, students were rated highest in the instructional expertise area overall. Their overall quality in the IHE report was .15 higher (out of 4.00) that the state-wide average.

However, professional development, leadership, and research ranked low in several places. The essays graduates wrote reflected these as the lowest scores. Also, in the state of North Carolina, these were three of the lowest ranking categories on the IHE report.

ACTION ITEMS

The percent of students completing their plan of work “on time” needs to be addressed. I talked with several faculty about the delay in filing the appropriate paperwork and have come to understand that the process for changing a plan of work can be cumbersome. Faculty are waiting until candidates have completed most of their coursework to complete paperwork as to ease the number of changes forms. As a Unit, we need to discuss how we can work more efficiently with the Graduate School requirements. This issue will be added to the agenda for the CEPC meeting in the fall.

The revisioning process is beginning in the fall for advanced programs. Three areas of consideration while revisioning are professional development, leadership, and research. These items were ranked low on the IHE reports and further research is needed to pinpoint exact issues.

The advanced program essays need to be reviewed and a decision regarding its usefulness is needed. There were 56 essay from 14 programs completed in 08-09 academic year. There were 5 independent raters for each essay. An inter-rater reliability analysis was conducted for the essays. Fleiss’ kappa statistic is a statistical measure for assessing the reliability of agreement between a fixed number of raters when assigning categorical ratings to a number of items. The measure calculates the degree of agreement in classification over that which would be expected by chance and is scored as a number between 0 and 1. The Fleiss kappa for the essays was .897. The raters were extremely consistent in determining unacceptable and acceptable but varied more between Acceptable and Target. If the essay continues to be part of the advanced gateways, more differentiation is needed between the Target and Acceptable categories. Anchor papers were also selected to help with future ratings. In addition, the essay may need to be imbedded in a course rather than at a particular hour mark. Doing so may ease the burden on faculty for ensuring candidates complete essay in a timely fashion.

The Culminating Project rubrics were also collected this academic year. Scores on the rubric are included in each program standards reports (under ED 999). Overall, candidates did very well with 59% Acceptable , 38% Target, and 3% Unacceptable. Suggestions about what other information is to be collected from the online form include space for a more detailed titled and advisor information. Both will be suggested at fall CEPC.

Program faculty are reminded to review the graduate alumni survey report and bring any comments to the fall CEPC. Our graduates feel prepared and the overall survey results were positive.