When the topic of program review comes up, most instructors seem to cringe at the thought of being the one in charge of its implementation. Why? Shouldn't it be the responsibility of everyone in a department to evaluate the effectiveness of their program(s)? I say yes! In my Ed.D. program, we recently spent time researching and discussing the topic of program review and why it's important, what it's meant to accomplish, and various methods of evaluation. Over the past few months I have decided that my doctoral project study will focus on a program review of the health science program I teach in. About 2 years ago, I did the last program review on this same program, and I must admit that I did it with a poor attitude! At the time, I was told that I had to do it...I didn't even have a choice! Now, both my attitude and outlook on the process have changed dramatically, even to the point where I want to evaluate the heck out of my program!
The questions I want to pose to anyone reading this blog are these, "Where should the focus of a good program review be? The students in the program? The faculty? Both?" When I actually implement this process, my review will be focusing on underlying causes of falling student success rates, because if you try and locate research combining the two ideas, you can't find much! To do an honest, thorough review of a program and focus on success rates, you have to look at both faculty and students! Students may fail, but did they fail because we as faculty members didn't do everything possible to help them? What do you think? Let me know!
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