Statement of Goals

 Institutional Criteria

As a degree-granting institution of higher education accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and in accord with federal requirement 4.1, every Hampton University student prior to graduation should attain the following general education core competencies:

• Critical Thinking is the ability to identify how to act after careful evaluation of the evidence and reasoning in a communication.

• Ethics is the ability to identify ethical ideas, issues, and applied principles relating to personal, professional, and academic conduct.
• International Diversity is the ability to understand the social customs, traditions, and artifacts of a culture.
• Information and Technology Literacy is the ability to use electronic media to support research activities and the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information and its sources.
• Oral Communication is the ability to deliver a spoken message of depth and complexity in a way that elicits a response from an audience of understanding, appreciation, assent or critical inquiry.
• Quantitative Reasoning is the ability to use numeral, geometric, and measurement data and concepts, mathematical skills and principles of mathematical reasoning to draw logical conclusions and to make well-reasoned decisions in professional, financial, and/or real world situations.
• Scientific Reasoning is the ability to describe, understand, predict, and control natural phenomena by adherence to a self-correcting system of inquiry, the scientific method, and reliance on empirical evidence.
• Written Communication is the ability to develop and express complex ideas clearly, coherently, and logically in a style appropriate for both purpose and audience with the capability to demonstrate mastery of accepted standards of written communication.

School/Departmental Criteria

As a companion to the general education core competencies, student achievement of specific intended learner outcomes is measured across the departments and schools/colleges in a variety of ways.  For example:

•  In the James T. George School of Business, courses in each department assess student progress and achievement in a variety of ways including course evaluations, external internship evaluations, case competitions, and capstone course projects.
• The School of Engineering and Technology, including majors in engineering and architecture, utilizes juries, portfolios, research projects/theses, and flight labs (aviation).
• In the Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications, the assessment of student achievement involves use of a course-wide pre/post-test, internships, senior exit interviews, senior capstone portfolio, performance of students in local/regional/national competitions. The School has created an assessment rubric, based upon the 12 ACEJMC competencies for accreditation of the program.
• Measures of student achievement in the School of Liberal Arts and Education include course examinations, juries, recitals, internships, portfolio reviews, performance critiques, internships, exit examinations, and theses.
• The School of Nursing uses direct and indirect indicators of learning, including course evaluations, course embedded assessments, standardized testing using computer software; and senior exit interviews.
• The School of Pharmacy utilizes a number of formative and summative assessments, in addition to the normal testing procedures for individual courses. These include student portfolios, an annual competency examination, the Exam Master Online mock NAPLEX, and Calculations Across the Curriculum.
• The School of Science, comprised of pure and applied science programs, utilizes a number of diverse methods to evaluate student achievement, including:  theses/dissertations/research projects, course examinations, research papers/oral presentations, laboratory practical examinations (biological sciences), major field achievement tests (chemistry),clinical practicum experiences, comprehensive examinations, capstone projects, internships, and portfolios.

HAMPTON UNIVERSITY’S MEASURES OF STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AND OUTCOMES

First-to-Second Year Retention Rate

The current first-to-second-year retention rate for first-time, full-time students is 69%. Hampton University’s goal is 80 to 90% freshman-to-sophomore retention rate for first-time, full-time students.

Graduation Rates

Hampton University takes student retention seriously and aims to reach an 80 to 90% graduation rate.  The current six-year graduation rate for first-time, full-time students is 60%.

LICENSURE AND CERTIFYING EXAMINATIONS

Teacher Education

Teacher education programs continue to hold a 100% pass rate for program completers taking state-required licensing assessments.  The Department anticipates that it will maintain its 100% passage rate.

School of Nursing

The School of Nursing’s goal is to exceed the required national 80% pass rate and have comparable pass rates with the national first time pass rate data. For 2012, the pass rate for Main Campus was 85.11% and 96.97% for the College of Virginia Beach.

School of Pharmacy

The School of Pharmacy has produced approximately 500 Pharm. D. graduates since its inception in 1998. The goal of the School of Pharmacy is to exceed the minimum acceptable passing score on the North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination (NAPLEX) scale of 75. The current mean pass rate for first-time NAPLEX candidates is 81.06%.

School of Science

In the School of Science, the departments of Communicative Sciences and Disorders and the Department of Physical Therapy prepare students to sit for their respective national certifying examinations required for professional practice.

• Department of Communicative Sciences and Disorders prepares its master’s degree program graduates to sit for the National Examination in Speech/Language Pathology. Students in the Residential program taking the national examination over the past two years have consistently exceeded the national pass rate of 80%.  The pass rates for students in the distance education program (DLVE) were 100%.
• Department of Physical Therapy prepares students to take the National Physical Therapy Examination (NPTE).  The goal of Hampton University is to exceed the national pass rate of 600 or above.  The Council of Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE) requires that an overall pass rate based on a 3-year program average is 80% or higher.    Data for graduation years 2008, 2012, and 2013, revealed a pass rate of 88.38%, exceeding the 80% national standard.