Assessing HDFS Program Effectiveness

The Department of Human Development and Family Studies conducts annual assessments of our courses, teaching and internship program to determine whether our students are reaching these learning objectives and to identify ways we can improve our program. We draw upon three sources of information to complete these assessments.

Learning in Courses

In addition to evaluations of each instructor’s performance in every course, we track the performance of our students on tests and assignments across multiple instructors and semesters in our core required courses. For example, in our introductory course on Interventions (311), 92% of students successfully completed a written assignment in which they used concepts from prevention science to describe an intervention program.

Supervisor Surveys

More than 90% of HDFS majors complete a one-semester, full-time internship, most often in their final semester. To gain an outside perspective on our students’ preparation for professional roles, we survey our students’ internship supervisors. In a recent supervisor survey focused on professional and ethical standards, 94-98% of supervisors rated our students positively (4 or 5 on a 5-point scale) on (a) ability to act in an ethically informed manner, (b) cultural sensitivity and (c) professional standards.

Senior Exit Surveys

Each year we survey graduating seniors at the end of their last semester. In a recent survey, 90% of seniors reported that their education in HDFS prepared them “well” or “very well” to work in a human services field; 92% reported that their HDFS education helped them understand policies relevant to human services; and 98% reported that their HDFS education helped them understand how individual and family differences affect the delivery of human services. In another senior exit survey, 97% of seniors reported they were well or very well prepared to work with children, youth, adults, and families in a professional and ethical way.