Executive Summary Assessment Plan
The Medical Education program at the School of Medicine and Dentistry culminates in the doctor of medicine (MD) degree. The program admits approximately 104 students annually for the four year academic program. Summative and formative assessment of medical students’ knowledge, skills, behaviors, habits, and attitudes occurs in basic science and clinical experiences throughout the four year educational program. All required courses and clerkships within the medical school are required to identify assessments that are mapped to their respective course and clerkship objectives, which are subsequently mapped to the overall education program objectives (see relevant document). Using varied assessment measures, students work with their advisory deans to develop tailored individual development plans that address academic, professional, and personal goals.
Accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) requires that medical schools collect and use a variety of outcome and evaluation data to assess program quality, as well as to monitor and confirm that the educational program objectives for the MD degree are being met by the overall curriculum. To this end, the Curriculum Steering Committee has required that a periodic comprehensive review of each individual course and clerkship be done at an interval not to exceed three years, with annual review by the Office of Curriculum and Assessment (OCA). In addition to meeting accreditation requirements, this continuing quality improvement process is also intended to provide feedback to course and clerkship faculty by outlining strengths and areas for improvement.
Oversight of learning assessment resides in multiple locations.With assistance from the OCA, the Curriculum Steering Committee and Year 1 and Year 2 Instructional Committees centrally monitors the overall curriculum, including student assessments. Institutionally, the School of Medicine and Dentistry submits annual reports on specific assessment processes to the Office of the Provost. The medical student assessment systems in place at the School of Medicine and Dentistry are working effectively, driven by strong internal and external processes. The assessment results of the school’s ongoing comprehensive evaluation process as well student feedback more generally have led to many improvements to the medical school.
The scientifically focused graduate programs at the School of Medicine and Dentistry are divided into health sciences programs and biomedical sciences programs. These research-based offerings include one master of arts program, one master of public health program, nine master of science programs, twelve doctor of philosophy programs, and the MD/PhD program. MD/PhD students pursue the PhD portion of their training within one of these twelve programs. Training faculty are in a mixture of basic science and clinical departments, with many graduate programs supported by federal (e.g., NIH, NSF) training grants.
Learning assessment at the graduate level is embedded in many aspects of training students to become future scientists, practitioners, and professionals. Some graduate programs are accredited by specialized accreditors, including the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the Council on Education for Public Health. Additionally, all programs undergo continuous and rigorous internal and external review of their structure, content, and assessment of student learning. For example, full circle assessment of student success is a necessary aspect of obtaining and sustaining federally funded graduate-and postgraduate-level training grants for 34 programs.
Oversight of assessment is on three levels: at the program level, each program performs annual reviews of individual students and of the program as a whole; at the school level, the Office for Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs; and at the University level, where biannual reports on the learning assessment processes for the graduate programs are submitted to the Office of the Provost.
All graduate programs at the School of Medicine and Dentistry has an assessment plan in place, and they are all being actively evaluated. Assessment plans are fluid; programs seek constant improvement and use information garnered from regularly meeting and from annual evaluations to implement changes to student learning. While assessment for master’s students is primarily managed at the program level, the Office for Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) evaluates PhD students at the school-wide level via multiple mechanisms. The graduate programs have several well-functioning mechanisms in place related to assessment and continue to develop additional means to accurately assess student learning, particularly at an aggregate level.
