QUESTION: EducationB2

The accounting discipline and curriculum need to adapt to changes in the business environment in which accounting professionals practice. The accounting faculty believe that the foundations for these changes can be delivered in the context and content of the five core accounting courses that all undergraduate accounting students must take: 

     Intermediate Accounting I & II 
     Cost Accounting 
     Individual Income Tax 
     Auditing 

The content of these courses (and all other accounting courses) changes on a timely basis to reflect external environmental influences and demands. For example, the recent failures in corporate financial reporting will promote changes in the auditing course with greater emphasis on fraud. 

The faculty regularly review course content to maintain the program’s currency and believe that currency in the common body of accounting knowledge is being maintained at Central Washington University. 

1)  In an increasingly global political, economic and social environment, awareness and understanding of cultural diversity, both within and among societies is a crucial area of understanding and competence that is applicable in a broad range of professions and work environments.  Our curriculum emphasizes these issues, plus themes that are necessary to work toward the greater well-being of humankind. These themes include race and the implications of the human genome project, issues of gender and human rights (including the rights of children), ethics in research, and anthropology as a science and the teaching of human evolution, and an holistic perspective; 

2)  Nearly half of all anthropologists work outside of academia. Anthropology students benefit from field schools, internships, and service learning opportunities that deepen their understanding of theories and methods they are learning about in class and while preparing them to transition to the workforce; 

3)  The four-field, holistic nature of anthropology makes it unique among social sciences. 
Themes:  Several department courses address topics of race, gender, human rights, and ethics. For example, several classes include discussions of ethics (Anth 130, Intro. to Cultural Anth., 444 Ethnographic Methods, Anth 459 Senior Colloquium; Anth 120 Intro. to Archaeology, Anth 321 Archaeological Methods) including exercises on ethics available from the AAA website. 

Applications of anthropological knowledge: the department curriculum includes numerous opportunities for faculty-mentored fieldwork and/or internships in all sub-disciplines.

Holism:  throughout the student’s academic career at CWU, the four-field perspective is reinforced.

[Department of Art faculty maintain currency by participating in a variety of interdisciplinary conversations through the presentation of creative works and the publication of scholarly activities.  Creative productivity can be demonstrated in the form of writing, participation in grant–funded projects, workshops, service opportunities, membership and leadership in professional associations, service as consultants and as judges of creative events and the reviewing of professional publications and textbooks.  Involvement in these professional activities enriches and informs our students’ classroom success and our own regular discussion of curricular effectiveness and innovation in the education of artists.]

The Department of Aviation maintains current curriculum through FAA monitoring of FAA approved Part 141 ground school courses, faculty scholarship, faculty participation in recurrent training and aviation conferences, and input from industry and from our contract flight training provider. These experiences and guidance are brought into the classrooms and made part of the curriculum. Additionally the Department of Aviation regularly confers with community colleges in the state who offer two year aviation degrees and works with these institutions to improve articulation into the CWU four year program.

At the invitation of Horizon Air, a Department of Aviation faculty representative participated in a three week new-hire ground school for the Dash 8 Q200 aircraft in September 2005. This allows Horizon’s course content and training materials to be integrated into existing Flight Technology curricula to facilitate student preparation for the Horizon Direct Hire program. Faculty are also exploring the possibility of implementing Horizon simulator flight profiles into the senior FLT 445 Multiengine Turboprop and FLT 489 Pilot Performance courses.

Horizon Air maintains a direct-hire with CWU graduates and comes to campus twice a year to interview and hire graduates and present to current students.

Our faculty members keep the curriculum current and relevant to our students in the following ways: 
     • Review and adoption of new textbooks 

     • Incorporation of recent scientific findings (from journals and other sources) into lectures and reading packets for students 

     • Incorporation of current faculty research into lectures 

     • Discussion of new scientific discoveries and science-related problems reported in newspapers, magazines, and other materials available to the general public 

     • Incorporation of materials into labs, lectures, and discussions from web sites of professional scientific and educational organizations 

     • Discussion of teaching strategies and course content with colleagues at other universities and at scientific meetings 

     • Modification of course content and format based on student and peer evaluations 

     • Inviting guest speakers to lecture on current research and applications 

The B.S. in Chemistry conforms to the recommendations of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the organization that cerifies this degree.  The process of ACS certification requires a formal assessment of the curriculum included in a self-study document that was submitted to ACS in spring 2004.  The department hosted a formal site visit by Dr. Phil Reid, a representative of the Committee on Professional Training, in November 2004.  The department submitted its first annual report to the ACS in August 2007.

Chemistry department program currency is ensured through the faculty’s involvement in fundable scholarly activity, through the annual updating of courses to meet modern trends, and through the continuous examination of curricular issues that occur in discussions or workshops at professional meetings (e.g., yearly Washington College Chemistry Teacher’s Association meeting, American Chemical Society National meeting, and Biennial Conference on Chemical Education).  American Chemical Society national standardized exams are also used at the close of several courses to assure currency and adherence to national chemistry educational standards.  The Chemistry Teaching major reflects national trends and standards prepared by the NSTA, NCATE, and the State of Washington.  

We get regular feedback from some employers who continue to seek our graduates including Pace International and Unigen Pharmecuticals.

The department relies upon three main strategies for making good changes in the curriculum, current trends in the disciplines, student assessment, and feedback from the professions within the discipline.  All of the faculty members are charged with staying current in their disciplines and in keeping the curriculum up-to-date. They are involved in a variety of professional development activities: attending professional conferences, research, continuing education, reading in the profession, participating in professional and academic organizations, and consulting in their professions (see faculty vita for details). These activities allow the faculty to participate in the larger discipline-wide debates about the future of communication, and to infuse those ideas into our curriculum. 

January, 2008
Disciplinary Standards and Professional Standards

Here it is appropriate to note again that once a decade, computer professionals from business, industry, and education get together and analyze the needs and trends in computer education.  The most recent curriculum review was published with the title Curriculum 2001.  The department carried out a total curriculum review in 2000 based on advanced releases of the document.  The review was completed with just after Curriculum 2001 was issued and the new curriculum was published for students beginning in the 2002 academic year.  The organization of the computer science undergraduate program was one of the major results of this review.  The department then reviews the curriculum annually with an in-depth look at each course occurring at least every three years.  Two years ago the department made a major redesign of the main programming and problem solving sequence of courses in large part because of this analysis.  

Students also take the Major Field Test.  The general trend in the results from AY 99-00 through AY 03-04 was increasing.  Results have stabized at an acceptable level since then with the exception of the scores in the Theory catagory last year.  Because of that the course at the culmination of the "theory" sequence of courses has been redesigned and will be monitored closely during our review this spring.

Employer Needs

The main measures that the department uses in this area are: (1a)performance in the capstones courses along with (1b) feedback from the clients associated with the capstone course projects, (2) senior exit interviews, (3) intership and cooperative education feedback, and (4) employer feedback.  Two years ago based on feedback in areas (1), (2) and (3) that the majority of graduating seniors would start their careers as testing programmers, we increased the testing component of the senior capstone courses.

Graduate School Expectations

We use (1) interviews with program graduates in graduate school and feedback from their advisors along with (2) our faculty who have extensive prior experience in graduate supervision and (3) student participation in undergraduate research to assess the currency of the curriculum relative to graduate school.  We have been particularly pleased with the performance of our students in undergradutate research as evidenced by their participation in SOURCE, regional and national conferences and co-authorship of peer-reviewed papers with national distribution.

The DOE curriculum is patterned after that of the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The DOE stresses the quality teaching and advising of students. However, scholarship and service to the university and community are expected of the faculty. Concerning scholarship, all tenured and tenure-track members of the DOE are expected to conduct scholarship which leads to publications in outlets such as refereed journal articles and books.

In response to the needs of employers, the DOE initiated its Economic and Business Forecasting specialization in 2007. 

All programs located within the Department of Education center their curriculum on state competencies and professional standards. Several external reviews require us to analyze and assess the currency of our programs. National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)

English department faculty maintain currency by participating in a variety of disciplinary conversations through the publication and presentation of scholarship and research; creative productivity and public performance of creative works; participation in institutes, grant-funded projects, workshops and inservice opportunities; membership and leadership in professional associations; service as consultants to and judges of scholarly and creative events and contests; and subscribing to, editing, or reviewing professional publications. These forms of professional involvement enrich and inform our students’ classroom success and our own regular discussions of curricular effectiveness and innovation.

FCS Education:
Curricula are compared to current National Standards for Teachers of FCS.  The instructor maintains currency by interacting with colleagues at other universities and by searching professional and organizational websites.  The instructor also attends regional and national conferences on FCS and keeps current by reading professional journals related to teaching and research in FCS.  The instructor engages in research relevant to the subject matter.

Family Studies:
Instructors use Student Evaluation of Instruction (SEOI) scores and written responses to measure student satisfaction with texts and course contents.  Instructors compare course curricula to standards established by National Council on Family Relations (NCFR).  Instructors maintain currency by interacting with colleagues at other universities and by searching professional and organizational websites.  Instructors also attend regional and national conferences on teaching family studies and keep current by reading professional journals related to teaching and research in family studies.  Finally, instructors engage in research relevant to their subject matter area.

Fashion Merchandising:
The current curriculum was designed to meet the Family and Consumer Sciences Textile and Apparel standards.  There are no professional fashion industry standards published for higher education institutions.

Recreation and Tourism:
The Recreation and Tourism Management Program has maintained a curriculum that is consistent with the standards of the National Recreation and Parks Association and the American Alliance for Leisure and Recreation (NRPA/AALR), the national accrediting institution for the leisure services industry. 

A preliminary application for NRPA/AALR Accreditation has been completed.

Interior Design:
All curriculum for the personalized interior design major and minor has been updated and aligned with the Foundation for Interior Design Education and Research (FIDER), the National Kitchen and Bath Association (NKBA) as well as the National Standards for Family and Consumer Sciences Education.

Disciplinary Standards.  The faculty keeps current in our areas through primary and seconary research and though professional involvment in our disciplines.  The faculty are involved in pegogical research which keeps us current on innovations and standards in our disciplines.

As language instructors, we are keenly aware of the constantly changing and shifting nature of living languages. All department faculty avail themselves of various media — both printed and electronic — and travel to countries where our instructed languages are spoken in order to assure that the material we teach is reflected in the respective native cultures and languages of our programs. 

The study abroad programs, particularly those coordinated by department faculty, are, perhaps, one of the most direct ways we guarantee currency of our curricular offerings. Our students are exposed to the very living forms of the languages they are studying through these exchange activities. Additionally, all of us confer with the representatives of various publishing companies who develop and distribute texts used in our lower levels of instruction. This occurs on a yearly basis. 

Our curricula is a blend of traditional geography along with some of the more contemporary concerns within the geography discipline.  Most of the regional, resource, physical, and human geography courses are taught from a traditional “human-environment relationship” perspective that we all agree is the type of geography that we should continue to teach, especially given the increasing emphasis of specialization within the discipline, and a trend among the sciences in general, to move away from holistic views of earth systems and landscapes.  Obviously, a certain amount of specialization becomes necessary when treating any geographic topic with some depth, and this is reflected in the discipline’s normal split between physical and human geography.  The department follows such a division in organizing our introductory sequence of required courses, as well as our upper division offerings in both human and physical geographies.  We are all cognizant, however, of the equivalent need to merge these two perspectives within each of our courses - to try and overcome the largely arbitrary divide between human and physical components of the earth.  During the conduct of upper division regional courses in particular, we strive to combine the study of human and physical geographies in the context of certain fixed locations in space, at whatever appropriate scale that should entail. Furthermore, it should be noted that our department is rather unique in exhibiting the great depth of regional coverage that our faculty are able to provide in course offerings. 

UPDATED JULY 2008
An accomplished and credentialed faculty who are active teacher-scholars assures currency of geology programs. Faculty attend national workshops in geoscience curriculum development and reform as well as professional research conferences and workshops. Faculty members remain current in their specific areas of expertise through peer-reviewed scientific research and publication and through participation in funding panels and advisory groups. The department has established a strong program of externally funded research in an era when training scientists as practitioners of science is a core national value. The department has a reputation as a feeder school to a national array of graduate programs. An emphasis on mentoring undergraduates in research also requires that faculty keep abreast of current research in their subdiscipline of geoscience. Faculty members are encouraged to incorporate their own research as well as other recent scientific findings into their lectures and lab exercises. Many courses include seminar-style discussions where students present and discuss recent journal articles. The department also hosts a Geological Sciences seminar series (approximately 3 seminars each quarter) at which guest speakers from around the state and country present recent research results. 

The department maintains close ties with a number of employers and graduate school mentors. Feedback, mostly informal, provides faculty members with indications of how well prepared students are for employment and graduate school. Several firms have been hiring our graduates for years, which suggests that the level of preparation for employment is excellent.  

The department has anecdotal data from students regarding their level of preparation. We recently launched an alumni website that has personal profiles and includes comments about alumni reactions to the program. 

The department is currently engaged in developing a more comprehensive program of feedback that will include formal surveys of employers and graduate school mentors. In response to program review requirements, an alumni survey was issued in June 2008.  We await responses. We anticipate that these formal mechanisms will echo informal information, but are committed over the next several years to developing formal feedback tools that will help inform academic decisions made by the department.

History professors maintain currency with developments in the field by engaging in scholarly research, joining professional associations, subscribing to scholarly journals, attending conferences, engaging with peers via computer, and shaping the library collection by advising the Acquisitions Librarian on campus.  We review textbooks for adoption.  We serve as consultants by evaluating scholarly articles for journals and books for publishers, and by judging competitions for book prizes.  We shape the scholarly discourse by contributing our book reviews, articles, books, and encyclopedia entries to major scholarly presses.  These activities refine and enhance the material we bring to the classroom.

We have alerted students to internships available in the community, for 1-3 credits.  We have publicized study abroad opportunities. We have encouraged strong students to polish research for SOURCE on campus,  Phi Alpha Theta and other scholarly venues.

The Construction Management, Mechanical Engineering Technology and Electronics Engineering Technology Industrial Education and Safety and Health Management programs maintain current curriculum through the efforts of accreditation.  These and other programs also rely on faculty performing scholarship, industrial consulting, and advisory boards to keep current with industry trends.  These experiences and guidance are brought into the classrooms and made part of the curriculum. 

Three professional organizations in information technology provide model curriculum and industry standards to which the department has cross walked its program and course content—SITE, ISTE, and OSRA.  In addition, the National Workforce Center for Emerging Technology Skill Standards are used in the development of the curriculum.  Similar programs at other institutions—BYU, University of Wisconsin - Whitewater, and Georgia Southern University—are used as references for curriculum and program revision. Additionally, the department is currently working on a GAP analysis with the student learner outcomes and courses modeled through ACM and ABET.

Because our curriculum (and academic field) is so new, we have not established a network of graduates with which to survey; nor do have enough data on graduate work. Interns and their supervisors are surveyed each year and results show that our students have good technical background and excellent professional skills - work ethic, communication, team work.

The ITAM faculty are continually attending conferences, workshops, and meetings where curriculum is discussed. These ideas are brought back to the department.

(1) Our faculty regularly review the currency of our undergraduate major. 
(2) We encourage and support faculty scholarship. Peer-reviewed scholarship is recognized by professional advancement. An annual individual professional development fund supports a wide variety of activities that maintain faculty expertise. 
(3) We support individual instruction classes, such as directed research and individual study. 
(4) We support new courses that add depth and currency to majors. 
(5) We maintain familiarity with contemporary curricula and teaching methods through contact with other institutions and professional organizations. 
(6) We focus on effective advising to improve student learning and timely progress.
(7) An assessment plan has been implemented for some core classes.
(8) Employer evaluation of law and justice cooperative student interns is over 4 on a 5 point scale.
(9) An alumni survey finds that there is high overall satisfaction with the program.
(10 According to the alumni survey, nearly two thirds of graduates get a job in the law and justice related area or do graduate work.

Assessing Core Business Administration Knowledge

The method used to assess graduating student’s understanding of the core business administration knowledge is the ETS field exam.  Following a successful pilot test during Fall Quarter 2002, the CB adopted the ETS Field Examination for Business.  Excepting economics majors, the examination currently is administered to senior-level CB majors as part of MGT 489-Strategic Management, an end-of-program capstone course.  In order to create a more level playing testing situation, the prerequisites to MGT 489 are now strictly enforced.  The CB has participated for several terms in which two sets of national norms are available from ETS (2003-2005 and August 2006-December 2006).  During those two time periods, CB had 625 students participating in the assessment program.  During the 2003-2005 time period, the nationally-normed comparison data was based on 513 institutions with 109,982 individuals.  For the August 2006-December 2006 time period, 181 institutions and 8,986 students participated.   The data reveals that CWU has scored consistently higher than the nationally-normed data.  They also provide a starting point from which to assess future improvements.

Beginning Summer 2005, in order to confirm consistent quality across the three sites, the ETS major field exam results were recorded by location:  Ellensburg, Des Moines, or Lynnwood. 

In nine quarters starting in Summer 2005, across 21 classes, Ellensburg campus, with 575 test takers, has had a grand average of 159.  Des Moines, with 238 test takers over 10 sections had a grand average of 156 and Lynnwood, with 381 test takers over 13 sections had a grand average of 157.

The ETS Field Exam in Business also provides valuable student performance information in eight specific functional areas of business.  Seeing no real actionable differences between the three locations of test administration in terms of overall scores, the scores for Ellensburg, Des Moines, and Lynnwood are collapsed across campus in the following discussion of the functional areas of business and effective Winter 2008, the scores will be reported by major as well as location.  As revealed in following tables, CWU students consistently perform better in the more quantitative areas of business—accounting, finance, economics, and business analysis.  

Beginning in the latter part of the Summer 2006, ETS added to the exam the new functional area of Information Systems.  

Actions Taken as a Result of ETS Exams
In January 2008, several major changes were made to the BSBA curriculum to address concerns highlighted in the ETS exam results.  In particular, the above results from the ETS exams indicated that while CB students did consistently very well in the quantitative areas, the results were less impressive for the more qualitative areas (management, marketing etc).  Although, over all students performed well in the exam, there was a noticeable variance between the quantitative and qualitative discipline results. Unlike the quantitative subjects, the marketing, management and human resource management classes had large numbers of non-business students.  In fact the principles courses for each of these disciplines are widely used as service courses for other programs and are also used by many non-business students as general electives.  It is not unusual for an excess of 50% of students in a particular class to be from outside the CB.  These non-business students typically will not have taken the preadmission classes required for admittance to the CB.  As noted above, these preadmission classes provide the foundation knowledge in the key areas of accounting, economics, mathematics and statistics, and business law.  Therefore the non-business students are likely to be ‘less prepared’ than business majors. Not only are there large numbers of non-business majors in the core and principle classes but most of the management, marketing, and human resource management classes were open to any student.  This did provide options for non-business students but also meant that instructors had to create curriculum that suited students that did not have the foundation business knowledge.  To ensure that all our courses offered by the department involved the appropriate level of academic rigor the following curriculum changes have been introduced for the 2008/2008 academic year.
	
Value-based Outcomes  
The President has funded an initiative that aims to systematically integrate business ethics across the whole CB curriculum (2007/08 Spheres of Distinction).  This is an ambitious program modeled on successful efforts at other institutions.  The following outlines the major goals of the project.

As a result of new curriculum introduced across the business core, all CB majors will:
-Appreciate the ethical implications of managerial decision-making; including recognition of the difference between acting legally and acting ethically,
-Understand the major conceptual foundations of ‘ethical thinking’; while recognizing students existing value-system,
-Be able to evaluate ethical alternatives using an analytical decision-making tool,
-Be provided with opportunities to consider ethical dilemmas in classes across the business curriculum (based on Aristotle’s notion of ‘virtue and character development’ through cultivating the habit of ethical behavior), particularly emphasizing ethical issues that are likely to be faced in the early stages of their career.
As a result of several initiatives to be introduced within the next two years, the CB will:
-Encourage ethical behavior in organizations within the state of Washington, 
-Provide various opportunities to engage the business community in a dialog on business ethical and corporate social responsibility, such as an annual speaker series and other public events,
-Develop an ‘Annual Leadership in Business Ethics Award’ to provide public acknowledgment for outstanding ethical behavior, this award will be in partnership with corporate sponsors.  CB students will be involved in the assessment of organizations nominated for this award.

Data Collected
All faculty in the CB were surveyed in late 2006 to assess whether or not they incorporate issues of business ethics into their curriculum.  The survey asked respondents to indicate the reasons that they do or don’t consider these issues, and if they do address business ethics how do they accomplish that goal.  For those who don’t address ethics they were asked to consider what would be required for them to introduce ethics into their curriculum.  Major results from the survey included a modest minority who believed that ethical behavior cannot be taught (15% of the total number of respondents).  Other concerns related to not enough time and insufficient training. With regard to the respondents who indicated that they use ethics in their curriculum, these faculty tended to use the ethics material available from the textbook, although they were generally not averse to going outside the textbook to find and apply external material, nor were they averse to including ethics as a theme throughout their courses.  Thus, among those faculty who covered ethics material in their curricula, content was drawn from a wide range of sources.  A final result is that the faculty preferred training sessions on teaching ethics over release time, financial reward, and reduction of other curriculum requirements.  

As part of the business ethics across the curriculum initiative the department will introduce a pre and post assessment of student’s comprehension of the ethical dimensions of managerial decision-making.  The pre-test will occur at the stage when students are first introduced to the ‘ethical decision-making model’.  When this model is used in each of the business administration core classes students can be assessed on this ability to apply ‘ethical thinking’ to discipline specific issues.  The official post-test will occur in the capstone class MGT 489.

Timetable for the Initiative
The major conceptual foundations will be introduced to CB students in the:
1.Introductory Business Law class (BUS 241).  A ‘200 level’ preadmission class for all CB majors.
2.A special on-line training program that introduces students to the material and tests their knowledge.   All transfer students who have not taken the Introductory Business Law class at CWU will be required to undertake this module in their first quarter at CWU.  Satisfactory completion of this module is required to enroll in their 2nd quarter in the CB.
A booklet will be developed and trialed with students during Winter and Spring 2008.  They will need to keep the booklet and it will be used in each of the core business courses.  The booklet will provide:
-an introduction to the subject area, 
-an overview of the major conceptual foundations (various alternative ethical viewpoints),
-an analytical tool that students can use to assess the impact on various stakeholders of managerial decisions.  The tool will allow students to consider the implications of the ethical approach they adopt.  The tool allows students to consider several different possible approaches,
-links to various material that will assist with ethical decision-making, e.g. the Ethics Code of their professional association,
-a description of the Code of Ethics of CWU and the CB Student Code of Conduct.

The initiative will be formally trialed in Fall 2008 and rolled out to all students by Spring 2009.

The Mathematical Association of America’s Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics (MAA CUPM) released their latest set of recommendations for departments, programs, and all courses in the mathematics sciences in 2004.  The program currently being offered follows these guidelines and faculty members frequently attend conferences with presentations and workshops discussing undergraduate education.

Currency of Curricula in Discipline: Secondary Education 
At least six sets of guidelines with similar prescriptions from the secondary mathematics education program at CWU.  The most important of these is the benchmark document, The Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (National Council of Teachers).  Other sets of guidelines mirror those of the Standards and have followed them historically.  They include the State Certification Standards, Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics, and Standards for Assessing Mathematics (NCTM), and The Mathematical Education of Teachers (Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences).  This program also adheres strictly to NCATE accreditation standards.

CWU’s Actuarial Science program is the only program in the state of Washington and also the largest advanced undergraduate program west of Mississippi River ranked according to the national standards published by the Society of Actuaries—the largest actuarial professional society in the United States. (The Society of Actuaries is a nonprofit educational, research and professional society of 17,000 members involved in the modeling and management of financial risk and contingent events.)

The CWU mathematics department is also proactive through education committees such as the development of the endorsement standards and Transition Mathematics Project.  Conducting the publishing research on mathematics education is one of the reasoning state leaders look to our department for leadership.

The curricula of all music degree programs are determined in large part by guidelines developed and published by the accrediting body for music units, the National Association of Schools of Music.  This organization re-accredits each member unit every ten years.  This is done through a detailed Self-Study, a Visitors’ Report and an Accrediting Commission Report.  The department underwent re-accreditation in the spring of 2002.  Following several actions taken to address issues that were identified by the Commission, the Music Department was informed on June 1, 2005 that it has been accredited as a member in good standing.   Therefore, it can be stated that the curricula of all the degree programs in the Music Department meet current national standards as established by the professional accrediting organization for music in higher education.

As noted above, several programs in the HHPN Department are assessed externally by governing agencies. Health Education and Physical Education teaching programs are designed to meet NCATE standards. The BS in Food Science and Nutrition with a specialization in Nutrition and Dietetics as well as the Dietetic Internship are accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Dietetic Education of the American Dietetic Association, and the Paramedics program is assessed by CoAEMSP.
 
In addition to accrediting processes, HHPN department faculty receive financial support and are encouraged to attend the national meetings of their governing or relevant professional organizations to update their knowledge of curriculum content and current practices. 

The Philosophy Department utilizes several tools for maintaining currency with the curricula of its disciplines. One resource has been The Philosophy Major, a book published by the American Philosophical Association, which describes in detail the principal types of undergraduate philosophy programs in the United States. In the recent revision of the Religious Studies Specialization, recourse was taken to the American Academy of Religion’s resources on U.S. undergraduate programs. Extensive research via the web is also utilized to compare our programs with those of peer institutions including Eastern Washington University, Western Washington University, Lewis and Clark University, Portland State University, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. 

Disciplinary Standards and Professional Standards

Here it is appropriate to note that the national societies in Physics have not set any curriculum standards.  With that said, a joint national report prepared by the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Institute of Physics reported many common themes found in “thriving” physics programs at different types of institutions (Ph.D., public four-year and private four-year).  This report was published in 2003.  The Department has used these standards when determining student learning outcomes and program goals.  The Department is currently evaluating its degree programs using this document.

Students also take the Major Field Test.  No analysis of the data has been conducted at this time; a task that will be undertaken by the Department’s Assessment Committee.

Graduate School Expectations

The Physics Department uses (1) informal interviews with program graduates in graduate school and feedback from their advisors along with (2) our faculty who have extensive prior experience in graduate supervision and (3) student participation in undergraduate research to assess the currency of the curriculum relative to graduate school.  The Department has been pleased with the performance of physics students in undergraduate research as evidenced by their participation in SOURCE, regional and national conferences.  

The Department is developing a Senior Survey and an Alumni Survey to help address some of the above issues.

There are no official curricular standards per se as put forth by the American Political Science Association or the like. Given the wide diversity and size of political science programs throughout the country, this is probably understandable.

However, the American Political Science Association lists various organized sections and other sub-fields of the discipline within its organizations.  In particular, the APSA “Fields of Interest” designation for Members includes the following major sub-classifications: 
			American Politics
			Comparative Politics
			International Politics
			Political Philosophy (Theory)
			Public Administration
			Public Policy
			Public Law and Courts

Notably, our curriculum covers all of these areas, with at least one course or more.  Furthermore, our core curriculum of Introduction to Politics, American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Politics, and one of four Theory courses follows this motif quite closely. (Note: public administration, public policy, and public law are all part of American Politics, though have somewhat of an autonomous tradition within the field. At CWU, Public Policy is also an inter-disciplinary major with Economics, Geography, and Political Science).  At some schools, there is no Introduction to Politics course, as the Introduction to American Politics (survey) course serves that function.

This compares quite closely and favorably to undergraduate programs at University of Washington, Eastern Washington University, and Western Washington University, and indeed others around the nation. We would note, however, that our “sister schools” in the state all have more faculty in their Departments than do we. Western Washington has 13 full-time faculty, and Eastern, eight. As a result, they offer more, and a wider variety of, courses, especially upper division. 

In terms of outside evaluation, our Senior Assessment exit survey shows a very high degree of satisfaction with the program and education delivery (e.g., 76% of seniors from 2001-06 commented positively that their “education prepared them well for their future,”(9% were negative, and the rest mixed), and 80% would recommend majoring in political science to others), though some felt that it either didn’t help them directly into a career (such as advising, etc.) or alternatively to get into graduate school.  We have made some changes to address these concerns, though we would note that few of our students either end up working in politics and government or go into graduate school in the field.
Jan. 08

(January 2008)
Undergraduate program
• The Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, a service of Division 2 of the American Psychological Association, has assembled a list of 17 subfield topics from a review of 36 university-level comprehensive survey texts. All of these topics are addressed in one or more of our courses.

• We strive to equip our students with the skills and perspectives of a contemporary psychologist. A list of desirable goals is provided by the report of the Task Force on Undergraduate Psychology Major Competencies (2003) appointed by the American Psychological Association’s Board of Educational Affairs. We have fashioned our program goals from this source.

• Responding to current trends in the discipline and results of our Major Field Test of graduating seniors, we have added courses in cognitive psychology and physiological psychology to our required core of classes.

Graduate programs
• The currency of the curricula is assured by conformity to the accrediting standards and state professional licensing requirements in our school psychology, mental health counseling, and school counseling programs. 

• Currency is bolstered by strong faculty contact with the practitioner community through our internship placements and by the need to prepare students for state certification. Our faculty members in school psychology, mental health counseling, and school counseling all hold appropriate state licenses and engage in regular continuing education classes.

• Feedback from students, internship supervisors, and employers helps to maintain the professional relevance of our training in the school psychology, mental health counseling, and school counseling programs. 

• Our experimental psychology graduate program was recently revised in light of a review of the curricula of peer institutions. 

• Responding to societal and employer needs, we are developing an experimental psychology specialty track in applied behavior analysis in collaboration with the graduate program in special education. 

• We maintain currency of our school psychology and school counseling programs through four annual meetings each with our Professional Education Advisory Boards, state-appointed boards of school personnel from our region.

When the department revised the sociology curriculum we analyzed faculty expertise and instructional preferences, current teaching loads and the consequences the proposed changes would have on the division of labor, and the likely impact the changes would have on student learning and progress toward graduation.  A number of data sources were consulted (e.g., on-line catalogs and web pages from other undergraduate sociology departments, publications issued by the American Sociological Association, student performance scores on content areas included on the MFAT exam, historical department data from Institutional Research) in this process before finally settling on the actual changes reflected in the current catalog.  

Theatre professors maintain currency with developments in the field by working in professional theatres, engaging in scholarly research and creative activity, joining and maintaining membership in professional associations, subscribing to scholarly journals, attending conferences, seeking training with peers through workshops and classes, engaging with peers via computer, and shaping the library collection by advising Dr. Patrick McLaughlin, Acquisitions Librarian on campus.  We review textbooks for adoption.  We serve as consultants by evaluating creative works by other theatre artists and books for publishers, and by judging acting and design scholarship competitions.  We shape the scholarly discourse by contributing our book reviews, articles, and books to major scholarly presses, as well as directing, writing, and performing in productions at the regional level.  These activities refine and enhance the material we bring to the classroom.