CACREP ADDENDUM Learning Environment

SECTION I. The Learning Environment

Standard I.A

The Self Study includes the website, graduate catalog, and other media sources as evidence of meeting the standard. However, no direct links or page numbers are given for ease of locating each of the six criteria identified by the standard.

The Self Study also lists several changes which (at the time of submission) needed to be made to the Graduate catalog. Although most are minor enough not to impact information related to this standard, one change impacts admissions requirements for the School Counseling program. The institution will need to ensure that all changes are made and reflected across all media in which program admission and curriculum information are provided.

Response:To address the concerns noted in the first paragraph of the initial review/recommendation we have noted what standard 1.A is and then where the information on the six criteria of the standard are located specifically with page numbers and links as needed.  

Standard I.A: The institutional media accurately describe the academic unit and each program offered, including admission criteria, accreditation status, delivery systems used for instruction, minimum program requirements, matriculation requirements (e.g., examinations, academic-standing policies), and financial aid information.

Admissions Criteria:

See pp. 33-36, in both the 2010-2011and 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogues, “Application to the Graduate School” which outlines the application to the graduate school as the first step prior to admission to a specific graduate program.

See pp. 73-75 of the 2010-2011Graduate Catalogue and pp. 80-82 of the 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogue, “Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology” which outlines general department information and subheading “Admissions Requirements”.

(NOTE: The 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogues contain some incorrect information that is in the process of being changed.)   To address the second paragraph of the initial review/recommendation for this Standard A concerning the revisions that were, and still are, in progress to move us to where we want to be in terms of fit with the 2009 standards, we have submitted the curriculum and program changes and these changes are going through the university’s curricular change process and have been approved at the college curriculum committee level, the graduate council level and were approved by the Council on Academic Affairs in its October 20, 2011 meeting.  These changes do not show in the current Graduate Catalogue for the 2011-2012 academic years but will show in the 2012-2013 catalogue.  These changes and their status as approved are shown in the Council of Academic Affairs Minutes for October 20, 2011and these revisions are summarized to include:

1.      Move MA in Human Services degree to Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department and remove references to it from the material on the Counseling and Educational Leadership Department.

2.      Clarify admission requirements to apply to both the MA in Mental Health Counseling and the MAEd in School Counseling Programs, to remove passage of the Praxis PLT test as an alternative to the GRE or MAT for admission to the MAEd in School Counseling and revise the MAT minimum acceptable score from 365 to 375. 

3.      Make the following course revisions:

COU 822 Lifestyle and Career Counseling – drop prerequisite EPY 816; add additional schedule type options

COU 826 Assessment in Counseling – add Department approval as prerequisite

COU 849 Addiction to Disorders Counseling – correct course title; add prerequisites

COU 813, 840, 846; add option for schedule type

COU 881 Internship in Counseling – revise course to reflect 600 (was 900 hours for Mental Health Counseling) hours of internship; add prerequisite COU 880

Additionally, these items are correct on the Department website including specifically in the Admission and Advising Handbook (link) and in the section titled Admission Requirements: SC& MHC. 

See Admissions/Advising Handbookon department website at www.education.eku.edu/cep under these sections: “Introduction”, “Admission Policies and Procedures”, “Student Admissions Checklist”, “Counselor Characteristics/Cultural Writing Sample”. (NOTE: The Student Handbook and Admissions/Advising Handbook on the department website do not have page numerations because it was created with indexed sections.)

See Student Handbook on department website at www.education.eku.edu/cep under section: “Admission Policies and Procedures”.

See Graduate School website on home page button for “Future Students” at www.gradschool.eku.edu which outlines admission requirements and process.

Accreditation Status:

See p. 74, of the 2010-2011Graduate Catalogue and p. 80 of the 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogue, “General Information” which specifically state that the MHC and SC programs are CACREP accredited and meet the standards of the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Board for Licensed Professional Counselors.

See p. 130, of the  2010-2011Graduate Catalogue and p. 140 of the 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogue, “Accreditation” which states that EKU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award associate, baccalaureate, masters and Doctor of Education degrees. CACREP is specifically mentioned on p. 130 of the  2010-2011Graduate Catalogue and p. 140 of the 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogue in the alphabetical listing of accreditation bodies for programs at EKU.

See Admissions/Advising Handbook on department website at www.education.eku.edu/cep under “Advising Letter”.

Delivery Systems Used for Instruction:

The “Delivery Systems Used for Instruction” is located in the Admissions/Advising Handbook and Student Handbook on the department website at www.education.eku.edu/cep under the section with the same title.

The SC and MHC programs at EKU are offered primarily in a night school, graduate school format on the main campus in Richmond, Kentucky. The department operates under a rolling admission policy, not a cohort model, and students are admitted each semester.  Occasionally a beginning level class may be offered at one of the extended campus sites, but there are no cohorts at any of the extended campus sites. EKU and the College of Education have encouraged the department to consider developing cohorts to take at least a portion of our programs to our extended campus sites.  Prior to developing and implementing such a model, the department would file a substantive change report for CACREP pre-approval.

The department offers a few classes that are fully online, but generally the fully online classes are elective not required courses for the programs. Some of the classes are offered in a traditional night school format from 6:00-8:45 one night a week. However, most of the classes are offered in a hybrid format of some online component and some on campus component. Many classes meet on an intensive schedule from 5-10pm every other week. Occasionally a class may be offered on a weekend format.

The department and university rely on Blackboard to assist delivery of instruction and learning in all classes on campus and each class has a Blackboard section utilized by faculty. In the past the department delivered a small portion of their classes via ITV (interactive TV), but this modality of instruction is not currently being used by the department. Faculty are also available for additional individualized instruction in a face to face or online video format as requested by students or required by faculty.

Minimum Program Requirements: 

See pp.74-75, of the 2010-2011Graduate Catalogue and pp.81-82 of the 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogue, “Program Requirements” which outlines the requirements for the MA in MHC and the MAED in SC. (NOTE: The 2010-2011and 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogues contain some incorrect information that is in the process of being changed. You may review these changes as outlined above in the section on “Admission Criteria”.

See Admissions/Advising Handbook on department website at www.education.eku.edu/cep under “MHC Planned Program” and “SC Planned Program”.

See Student Handbook on department website at www.education.eku.edu/cep under “Degrees and Programs” for MHC and SC programs.

See Graduate School website at www.gradschool.eku.edu and click on button for “Graduate Programs”.

Matriculation requirements (e.g., examinations, academic-standing policies):

See pp.38-39, in both the 2010-2011and 2011-2012Graduate Catalogues, “Degree Completion Requirements” which outlines the process, minimum hours, and comprehensive exams for degrees.

See pp. 73-75, in the 2010-2011Graduate Catalogue and pp.80-82 in the 2011-2012Graduate Catalogue, “Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology” which outlines the general department information with “Exit Requirements” listed on p.75 in the 2010-2011Graduate Catalogue and p. 82 in the 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogue.

See p. 15, Graduate School Handbook located on the Graduate School website at www.gradschool.eku.edu which states that students must maintain a minimum of 3.0 to be in good standing.

See pp. 16-17, Graduate School Handbook located on the Graduate School website at www.gradschool.eku.edu which discusses graduate application process, comprehensive exams, and time limits to complete degree.

See Admissions/Advising Handbook on department website at www.education.eku.edu/cep under point 12 of “Steps for Graduation”.

See “Comprehensive Exam and Graduation” button on department website.

Financial Aid Information:

See pp.22-23, in both the 2010-2011and 2011-2012 Graduate Catalogues, “Financial Aid” which outlines a variety of financial aid programs and services.

See pp.10-12,  Graduate School Handbook located on the Graduate School website at www.gradschool.eku.edu which outlines a variety of financial aid programs and services.

Standard I.H.4

Please provide clarification and documentation of the procedures used to ensure that the student client's confidentiality and legal rights are protected in the counseling instruction environment.

Response:To address this concern, the department voted to create a document specifying basic “Confidentiality and Student Legal Rights”.  This document is included in the student handbook.  It is a requirement in COU 813, Professional Orientation and Ethics, that all students sign both this document and the Student Agreement Contract.  This is the first course for both the School and Mental Health Counseling programs.  In addition, the statement below was added into every required course for the program directing student who transferred in or otherwise missed singing these documents in COU 813 that they must sign it in the first class they are in as part of these programs and reminding them to review these documents at the start of every course.  The statement is:

In COU 813, Professional Orientation and Ethics, all students are asked to sign both 1) a Student Agreementand 2) a Confidentiality and Legal Rights Policy Agreement.  If you have transferred into this program and have not signed this agreement, you are required to do so immediately and to give your signed form to your instructor or to the Counseling and Educational Psychology Department Chair.  These agreements are in place for all courses in this department and by remaining registered in this course and participating in this class you are verifying that you will honor these agreements.  Copies of these agreements are located in the student handbook for your review.

Standard I.M

The narrative response provided information for fall and spring semesters. Please provide information on the summer semester as well as the standard specifies a calendar year.

Response:In the original table submitted to addressthe “number of credit hours delivered by noncore faculty must not exceed the number of credit hours delivered by core faculty” we failed to submit the data for the summer sessions.  This is now included in the table below for clarification.  The data was gathered from Enrollment Data collected and linked here and now includes the summer semesters as well.

*all courses listed above are 3 credit hour courses  

Standard I.N

The student to faculty ratio for all but one semester in the past three years was slightly in excess of 10 to 1. A ratio of 11.45: 1, in spring 2009, was the highest reported.

Please provide clarification of the statement, "Please note the one to three COU courses each semester that were a part of only the Human Services degree program also offered in the department were not included in the student hour calculations and the faculty teaching these courses so do not teach in the school or mental health counseling programs so were also not included. 

Please provide a detailed calculation demonstrating the means and the figures utilized to arrive at the FTE ratio provided. The following is one way of calculating this ratio:

For the student side of the equation, secure institutional data on the number of credit hours generated by students in the counseling programs for the specified academic term and divide by the institution's definition of what constitutes full-time graduate enrollment for that term length.  For the faculty side of the equation, each full-time faculty member counts and 1.0 FTE (if any of these faculty members receive release time during the term, the 1.0 should be decreased by the amount of release time). Each adjunct and/or affiliate faculty member would count into the calculation based on their percentage of full-time teaching load. For example, if a full-time teaching load is 3 classes, then each adjunct would count .33 FTE for each class taught during the term. Then divide the FTE student figure by the FTE faculty figure to determine the overall FTE ratio for the given term.

Response: The note mentioned above concerning the Human Services degree program was stated to indicate that these courses specific only to this degree, since not a part of the accredited programs in school counseling and not taught by core faculty of the accredited programs, were never used in the calculations of FTE ratios.  The Human Services degree program is housed in the Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology until fall semester of 2012 when it will officially move to the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies.  This is a non-counseling degree and its major courses are taught by adjunct faculty of the department who are in student affairs positions in the university.  These adjunct faculty do not teach any courses in the accredited counseling programs and are not considered adjunct faculty of these programs.  The statement that the courses specific to this degree and the faculty who teach in this program were not included in the FTE calculations were made to assure CACREP that, even though this degree is housed within this department, the FTE calculations were made for the accredited programs only. 

A demonstration of the FTE calculation for the school and mental health counseling programs for the six semesters noted in our original report are included below.  We have expanded the table we used in the original report to show the details described in the original submission but not included.  The Data on actual course enrollments were drawn from actual screen shots of our final registration as shown in our Banner Data management system and these screen shots are available here (Enrollment Data 2008-2011).  We changed to use the formula parameters you described above which slightly changed some of our ratios as shown in the table below.  However, we continue to monitor our ratio closely and feel the results shown below demonstrate that and our commitment to the 10:1 ratio.  

Standard I.Q and I.R

The course ratios related to both standards have occasionally, in past semesters, slightly exceeded expectations for standards. The visiting team may wish to verify what processes are in place to ensure that the ratios are consistently met in the future. For internships, reviewers noted the following statement included in the narrative response: "Internship sections are registered for by students according to their site type (Elementary School, Secondary School or Mental Health Setting) and, because of this, an occasional section of internship class may show more than 12 students in a section but students are moved within these sections to keep the average student to instructor ration 12 or less."

Response:  Standard I.Q and I.R state that when program faculty provide individual or triadic supervision as we do in the practicum the ration of students to faculty will not exceed 6:1 and group supervision as we provide in the internship shall not exceed 12:1. In our original response we provided the table below which showed the mean ratio for the spring and fall semesters for the last 3 years averaged 6.09:1 for COU 880, Practicum, and 11.41:1 for COU 881, Internship.  Although this is very close to the goal ratio there were variations which had the ration in one semester in COU 880 Practicum as high as 7.66 to 1 and as high as 13.6 to 1 in COU 881 internship.  The processes currently in place to assure the ratios are kept at the standards for these courses for the future are managed by the department chair who has the ability to create new sections of these courses if the ratio is exceeded in enrollments and to move students between open sections to balance the ratios and be sure the goals are met.  The statement that students enroll for the sections of practicum and internship by where they are doing their placement (elementary school, secondary school or mental health) was done in the past to allow the registrar to include where the student did the practicum or internship on their official transcript.   This was needed for the school counseling students in particular in the past as they were given certification at the elementary (grade p-8) or the secondary (grades 5-12) levels only.  However, our state now allows us to recommend certification at the P-12 grade level and we do this for all of our school counselors.  Now we have either school counseling practicums and internships or mental health counseling practicums and internships and we are able to manage enrollments within these areas where we do not need to allow the sections of one to appear larger than the approved 6 or 12 students so this is no longer a concern. 

Standard I.Y.1

It appears that eight of the 11 affiliate and adjunct faculty identified have degrees in counseling.

Response: Standard I.Y.1 states that the academic unit may employ noncore faculty who meet the requirement of holding graduate degrees, preferably in counselor education from a CACREP accredited program.  While it is true that none of the noncore faculty we listed hold degrees from CACREP accredited programs, they all have appropriate credentials for the courses they teach.  I have added the courses that each adjunct or affiliate faculty member has taught to the list that was submitted with the original self-study and included it with the response to the questions about Standard I.Y.3 below.  As you look at this, you will find that all have proper degrees and experiences to teach the courses they have been assigned.  For example, two of the three individuals who do not have degrees in counseling have doctorates in foundations of education and in educational technology as well as multiple master’s degrees in areas such as education, international relations and educational administration and they teach only EPY 869, Educational Research.  The third person without a degree in counseling has a MA in Nursing and is a psychiatric nurse practitioner with years of clinical experience and has taught only courses in clinical practice such as our course in Crisis and Abuse Counseling (COU 847).  

Standard I.Y.3

Please provide clarification of the courses taught by the adjunct and affiliate faculty listed in the self-study.

Response:To address this request I have copied the table used in the original self-study and I have added an additional column listing the courses each adjunct or affiliate faculty member has taught for us in the past.  Click here for table

Standard I.AA.2

As acknowledged in the report, the response rate to the graduate survey is too small (three responses from an n of 182 graduates surveyed) to provide useful data. The Department has taken steps to attempt to improve the response rate.

Response:To address this concern the department has or is taking the following steps:

In November of 2011, emails were sent to all graduates over the past five years of both the School Counseling and Mental Health Counseling programs. These emails each contained two URL links: one to a survey for graduates of both programsand another link to a survey for their employers. The graduates were asked to forward the email to their employer and ask them to complete the employer survey. These emails were sent to both graduates from the School and Mental Health Counseling respectively. 

Also in November 2011, letters via U.S. Mail were sent to the same graduatesof both programs asking them to visit the website and complete the survey and again to forward the request to their employers. 

Also in November 2011, letters were sent to stakeholders (program graduates, past identified supervisors and employers) via U.S. Mail asking them to visit the website and comment on the self-study and program modifications submitted to CACREP.

Also in November 2011, emails were sent to all current students in both programs inviting them to complete a survey via Survey Monkey.

A student forum is scheduled in the evening of Thursday, December 1^st. This forum will be for the expressed purpose of getting feedback from current students about their programs and their experience here at EKU.

Standard 1.AA.4

The program has developed a comprehensive assessment plan that allocates coverage and assessment of core and program standards across the curriculum for each program. The plan is well designed and easy to follow.

However, in the subsequent review of syllabi undertaken by reviewers in order to identify curriculum experiences and SLOs that align to applicable standards, it was sometimes not possible to make connections between learning experiences (topics to be covered in course sections as identified in the course schedule) and CACREP standards, mainly because not enough information was provided to make that determination. Some syllabi only described the assessments to be used in the course, and did not include other learning experiences (e.g. readings, lecture and discussion topics). All syllabi did include comprehensive lists of student learning outcomes to be met in each course, but it was difficult in many cases to understand what learning activities and assessments students would undertake in order to achieve those outcomes.

Response:This feedback was very useful to us as it described a lack of clarity we did not realize was there and that may have created a similar lack of clarity for our students.  After lengthy discussion in our department meetings on this issue we decided to address this by revising all course syllabi to include the specific curricular experiences used in each course to address each specific CACREP standard.  This revision of all courses led to some changes in what standards were addressed in each course.  This in turn meant we needed to revise the standards table and the standards matrix we provided with the original self-study.  We hope that the revision of the syllabi for all courses, the standards table, and the standards matrix will address all needed connections and add the clarity you are looking for and our students will appreciate.