Project Summary
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Title: |
Assessment
of Student Performance and Results of the Criminal
Justice Comprehensive Exams
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Project Directors: |
Mahfuzul
Khondaker and Pietro Toggia, Department of Criminal
Justice
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Students of criminal justice at Kutztown University are required
to take the comprehensive essay examination in order to graduate
with a B.S. degree. The comprehensive essay examination serves a
number of interrelated purposes, including the evaluation of
students’ knowledge of the criminal justice discipline, critical
thinking abilities, writing skills, and significance of a
liberal arts education. Although passing the comprehensive exam
is a graduation requirement, many students do not take it
seriously, as it is evident from the results of recent exams.
The
purpose of this project was to assess how serious students are
about the comprehensive essay exam and how much effort they are
putting into it. The study also looks into the factors that may
contribute to a successful exam performance. This study was
conducted among the 62 students who took the comprehensive exams
between spring 2008 and spring 2009.
Our
findings indicate that majority of the respondents took the exam
seriously or very seriously. In terms of factors contributing to
the success in the exams, data indicate that those prone to
study for an exam tended to study for all components on the
comprehensive and to also perform well. Moreover, this was
especially clear for Exam 2 where amount of study was related to
success. In addition, use of the comprehensive exam study guide
was an important variable. Finally, the findings from this
project have resulted in changing the comprehensive examination
to one where important student learning outcomes are assessed
through course-embedded assessments.
A
full report of the project is available from the Principal
Investigators.