College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences Catalog 2016

81 individual students, with the need to maintain a positive reputation for our graduates to ensure success in the field. The program director attends closely to the progress of individual students during their first semester. Most of our attrition occurs during this first semester, when students are not able to succeed academically or have underestimated the commitment required for a graduate program. In this event, the program director meets with the student and the faculty teaching the student that semester. Every effort is made to work towards a mutually agreeable outcome, as for example a transfer to a less academically rigorous, nonclinical program. At the end of the first three semesters, when the students transition to their external practicums, the program director again consults with faculty as to the progress of individual students. Students having academic difficulties or low grades would have been noted before this point, but if students have performed well academically but the faculty has concerns about their clinical ability, Students may be asked to take additional internal practicums above and beyond the minimum requirement. The program director and the faculty work with individual students to maintain their progress towards graduation. If at any time, however, it becomes clear a student is interpersonally, ethically, or academically unqualified for the practice of marriage and family therapy, that student will be dismissed from the program. Our goal is a high level of retention, but balanced at all times with the need to maintain the integrity of the program and the profession. Student Achievement The NSU MS in MFT program has a policy of continuous assessment of students and of graduate success. 1. Assessment of students includes course evaluations and grades; practicum evaluations (both on site and faculty supervisor evaluations); and comprehensive examination results. We also maintain close contact with external supervisors, at agency sites, and obtain their evaluations of our students. (See chart below for aggregated data; we also obtain individual evaluations of each student from their external, on site supervisor as well as faculty supervisor). 2. Once students are graduated, we maintain data on graduation rates, licensure exam pass rates, and job placement rates in the field. We are able to verify graduation rates from our own internal data. Once students are graduated, we must rely on their maintaining in contact with us to provide us with licensure exam pass rates and career data. To encourage students to do this, we utilize social media and personal contact. We provide graduates with a permanent @nova.edu email address. In addition, we maintain three active Facebook pages: an NSU MS in MFT Club page; a page put together by graduates but linked to the program director, for those signed up to take the licensure exam; and the program director’s individual page. The program director posts job openings and resources for graduates to encourage graduates to maintain contact with her and with the program. We also host monthly “reunions” for graduates in the tri-county area, one for graduates in agency work and one for graduates in private practice. In addition, the NSU alumni office sends out a survey to graduates annually. We consider ourselves both “high tech” and “high touch” in our efforts to maintain contact with graduates. The program director is reliably in contact with the majority of program graduates, and supplies them with job openings, references, workshop information, and ongoing updates on the licensure examination. 3. Finally, we also maintain contact with major employers of our graduates and obtain their input through participation in our curriculum committee. We have representatives of large private practices and agencies that employ our graduates in the tri-county area serving on