Direct Measures
For the Specialist Degree, all candidates will be given an oral assessment in the form of a mock interview. Topics addressed will include public relations, school law, school facilities, business management, and administrative theory, the framework for understanding, predicting, and controlling performances in your school system. All faculty members will use a prepared script based on a format from Ventures in Excellence, a research based company. As a team, the members of the department will discuss and assess the responses based on a data bank of compiled responses that are indicators of successful administrators. The performance assessment allows for immediate feedback to the candidate and faculty members as to whether the learning objectives are being met and if there is a need for program changes.
All candidates will participate in an Internship, an experiential assignment, which includes activities with substantial responsibilities that increase over time in amount and complexity and involve direct interaction and involvement with staff, students, parents, and community leaders. The candidate, the site supervisor, and faculty member who coordinate the internship will plan the candidate's experiences cooperatively. The site supervisor, the faculty coordinator, and a faculty member other than the faculty coordinator will evaluate the internship experience according to specific criteria. Results will be evaluated to determine if learning objectives are being met.
The Field Study is a written project designed to provide the candidates in educational administration with the opportunity to design and conduct research on a contemporary issue in education. The candidate will become familiar with research design, statistical applications to test for significance, and literature. Assessment of the Field Study will determine if the learning objective is being met.
After completion of the Field Study, the candidate will defend the research before his/her committee composed of the following: the supervisor of the field study, another EDAD faculty member, a College of Education (COE) faculty member who teaches Techniques of Research, and a faculty member outside of COE. Assessment of the oral defense will determine if the learning objective is being met.
Indirect Measures
To provide insights into the levels of preparedness graduates experience when becoming administrators and the strengths and weaknesses of the EDAD program in contributing to their readiness, parallel surveys are sent to employers and alumni. Every three years parallel surveys will be sent to a random sampling of UNK EDAD Program graduates who are currently practicing school administrators in Nebraska and to their Board Presidents. Results of the survey will be compiled and examined to determine if there are implications for changes in EDAD programs. Information will be shared with both internal and external audience, and for making recommendations and, if needed, program changes.
To provide statewide insights into the perceived quality of our UNK administrators, alumni and members of the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE) will be invited to serve on the EDAD Advisory Committee. An agenda will be mailed prior to the meeting and time will be allocated for concerns or comments. At each annual meeting, committee members will be requested to react to a set of questions that focus on their perceptions of UNK graduates. Responses will be compiled, analyzed, and evaluated. Results will be shared to determine the need for making program changes.