Program Review for
Communication Sciences and Disorders
(M.S.)
2006-2007 Recommendations
I.
Strengths
1. The CSDO program at TAMUK has received national accreditation by the Council on Academic Accreditation of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association up through 2013.
2. The faculty are well-qualified for the program and are up-to-date with their respective courses taught in CSDO.
3. CSDO has a well-defined curriculum and student assessment plan.
4. Has a large graduate student population and continues to be one of the most rapidly growing graduate programs at TAMUK.
5. Has an average pass rate of 87% on the Praxis Exam.
6. Student job placement has been 100% for all graduates of the program.
II.
Weaknesses
1. Not enough faculty are available to adequately cover the existing course selection/variety and to provide adequate thesis/project supervision for participant graduate students.
2. The department does not have enough graduate
assistantships to:
a.
Support their graduate majors
b.
Assist graduate students in completing their degrees in a timely manner.
Although most
students seem to be employed while pursuing the MS degree, there is some attrition
in the program and it may be reflective of the need for adequate student
support for those that are not employed during their tenure as graduate
students in the program.
3. Over 52 graduate students are majors in
the program in a given year. A MS is a two to three-year program. One would
expect to have at least 5 graduating each year. Approximately
20% of the graduate students complete all graduate requirements within a 24
month term. The remaining students
graduate beyond this 24 month term due to faculty limitations and limited
support for completing their thesis or project.
III.
Recommendations:
1. The program needs to hire additional faculty.
As of this review, two additional faculty, one lecturer/clinical director and a secretary have been hired to supplement the existing faculty/staff for the CSDO program. The total faculty for CSDO are 4 tenure track faculty and 1 lecturer. This is a great stride towards strengthening the teaching capabilities of this program and will provide a better ability to supervise and mentor graduate student theses/project research. The hiring of new faculty/staff will also provide greater course diversity that will provide more access for graduate students that are unable to take courses due to high demand for the offered courses.
2. The program needs to secure graduate assistantships/scholarships.
The explosive growth and demand for the CSDO program would justify the reallocation and strategic awarding of graduate support for these students. The attrition rate may be attributable to lack of graduate research supervision but is also most likely due to financial burdens placed upon the enrolled students.
Program Recommendation:
The CSDO Master’s program is recommended for continuation.
Dean’s Comments:
The program needs to hire additional faculty, despite the fact that two additional faculty, one lecturer/clinical director and a secretary have been hired for the program. Additional resources are needed for the following two reasons:
Outcome/Assessment Report
Master’s Program in CSDO
Spring 2008
Dean’s Comments: (please
report on the progress that has been made on the recommendations)
An additional faculty member has
been hired. However, due to a
substantial increase in the numbers of majors and SCHs,
more faculty are needed. A line item position is available if a
qualified faculty member can be attracted to the university.
The department has been allocated
additional graduate assistantships/scholarships.