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The Department of Counseling and Human Services

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Provost Enhancement Award for Assessment and Educational Effectiveness

This award honors departments or programs that use clear learning outcomes, sustained assessment practices, and “closing-the-loop” strategies to strengthen curricula, support student success, and contribute to program health, accreditation, and institutional effectiveness.  The recipient of this year’s award is The Department of Counseling and Human Services.

Across its five degree programs, the Department of Counseling and Human Services is committed to the idea that their graduates complete their programs not only as competent practitioners, but as people genuinely prepared to care for those that they serve.

What makes the department's approach distinctive is the depth and discipline of its feedback loop. Each semester, faculty in the Standards Work Groups analyze program data and identify curricular needs. Their findings move to a department-wide Assessment Action Committee for review and formal approval, after which reports are shared broadly with faculty, students, site supervisors, graduates, the Dean, and the Provost, and posted publicly on the department's website. The following year, the committee reconvenes to develop concrete action steps, which are then implemented through curricular changes and policy updates. Every stage is documented in a running narrative, creating a transparent, year-over-year record of improvement that is as much an assessment of the assessment process as it is of the programs themselves. This work has earned the department's accreditation by both CACREP at the graduate level and CSHSE at the undergraduate level.

The department's support of assessment extends well beyond its own programs. Faculty are deeply engaged in college and university-wide initiatives — with Dr. Vanessa Jensen serving as Director of the Office of Educational Assessment, Dr. Paul Datti as the LCHS Faculty Fellow, and Dr. Megan Whitbeck on the Educational Assessment Advisory Committee. The Department of Counseling and Human Services does not simply practice assessment; it helps build the culture of assessment that benefits the entire university.

 

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