TO:  Visitors via the Web to the Department of PS/CJ at ASU

FROM:  William Cassie, Kathy Simon and Dragan Stefanovic (chair) PS/CJ Assessment Committee

DATE:  4/12/2000

SUBJECT: Assessment

    In the spring semester of 1999 the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice conducted an assessment of its undergraduate and graduate students.  Since the purpose of the assessment was to capture the opinions of undergraduate political science (PS) and criminal justice (CJ) majors and those of graduate students in the Master of Arts (MA) in Political Science and Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs, we purposely surveyed upper division courses and those with high concentrations of PS and CJ majors.  To prevent repetition we also told students that they did not have to take the survey if they had already taken it in another class. For the same reason the surveys were not anonymous but students were assured that their individual opinions would be kept confidential. We surveyed 188 students.

HIGHLIGHTS of the results of the survey are attached (Tables 1 and 2, which were descriptive, are not shown)

   Table 3. Reason for Selecting Major.

   Personal Desires/Interests       135 (98%)
   Parents                                     14 (10%)
   High School Teacher/Advisor      7 (5%)
   Friend                                       21 (15%)
   University Faculty/Advisor        23 (17%)
   To Qualify for Another Degree  19 (14%)
   Other                                        16 (12 %)

    Note: These figures exceed the number of students surveyed because students were encouraged to select more than one answer.

Most people select one of our majors because it is of interest to them.  A valuable insight is that 17 percent (23) of the students asserted that they chose their major because of the advice that they were given by a University Advisor or Faculty member.

When asked about their plans after graduation the students replied as shown in Table 4.

   Table 4. Plan after Graduation.

    Work                        98  (71%)
    Higher Education       78  (57%)

Although many of our graduates will immediately enter the job force, many of our current undergraduate students will end up earning a Master Degree in our Department.  Please see our list of options for graduate study here in our Department at ASU.

The next question asked students how effective they thought their major was in preparing them for their future endeavors. The results are shown in Table 5.
 

   Table 5. Preparation for Future.

                                           Strongly Agree      Agree       Disagree/Strongly Disagree

PS                                        19 (31%)           33 (54%)      9 (15%)

CJ                                        27 (35%)           41 (53%)      9 (12%)
 

From these results, it appears that a large majority are satisfied that their selection of a PS or CJ major has prepared them for the future.  This is of course, our major goal, to produce citizens who can play an active and productive role in the political world.

The next question inquired if the courses the students had taken had aroused their interest in specific areas of Public Affairs/Politics and Criminal Justice. The results are shown in Table 6.
 

  Table 6. Generated Interest.

  PS Majors                                           CJ Majors
  Public Affairs/Politics
  Local                                 30 (49%)   31 (40%)
  State                                  38 (62%)   51 (66%)
  National                             43 (71%)   48 (62%)
  International                       28 (46%)   13 (17%)
  None                                   1 (2%)     14 (18%)

  Criminal Justice
  Law Enforcement, Courts,
  Corrections etc.

  Local                               15 (25%)   39 (51%)
  State                                17 (28%)   57 (74%)
  Federal                            20 (33%)   54 (70%)

NOTE: The percentages in the table indicate the percentage of majors who stated that their courses generated their interest in a particular area. The numbers do not add up to 100 because the respondents were encouraged to pick as many of the answers as they wanted.

When asked if any of their courses should be required to be taken earlier or later in the course work four (7%) of the PS and five (7%) of the CJ students selected Yes.  There was no pattern in the responses.  No courses were mentioned more than once.

When asked if they felt that any of the classes that they took outside of the department were unnecessary 17 (28%) PS and 29 (38%) CJ majors selected YES.  The predominant response was that statistics was unnecessary.  Several students suggested that statistics should be taught in the Department.  Some students also mentioned statistics as a problem in other parts of the survey.  Other courses that were mentioned less frequently were history, art, biology, PE, and theater.

The next three questions asked students about role of internships. The results of these questions are shown in Tables 7, 8 and 9.

   Table 7. Role of Internships – Prepare Students for Jobs

                                                 PS            CJ

Strongly Agree                       38 (62%)   50 (65%)
Agree                                     23 (38%)   23 (30%)
Disagree                                                    2 (3%)
Strongly Disagree                                      1  (1%)
Do Not Know                                           1 (1%)
 

   Table 8. Role of Internships – Provide Practice

                                                 PS            CJ

Strongly Agree                        28 (46%)   31 (40%)
Agree                                     29 (47%)   38 (49%)
Disagree                                   3 (5%)     3 (4%)
Strongly Disagree                      1 (2%)     1 (1%)
Do Not Know                                          4 (5%)

   Table 9. Role of Internships – Opportunity for a Job

                                                 PS            CJ

Strongly Agree                       11 (18%)   36 (40%)
Agree                                     29 (47%)   48 (49%)
Disagree                                14 (23%)     8 (4%)
Strongly Disagree                     7 (12%)     1 (1%)
Do Not Know                                           7 (5%)

It is clear from the results that the students feel that internships play an important role in their education and finding a job.  Our internship program is one of the strongest assets of our Department.

The next four questions dealt with advising.  The first two dealt with the advising students received from the Department Faculty and by the University Academic Advising.  The students were asked if advising met their needs.  The results for these questions are shown in Table 10 and Table 11.  The last two questions about advising asked the students if they had received career advising from the Department Faculty and from the University Career Center. The results for these questions are shown in Table 12 and Table 13.
 

    Table 10 – PS/CJ Advising Met My Needs

                                                 PS            CJ

Strongly Agree                       18 (30%)   25 (33%)
Agree                                     36 (59%)   43 (56%)
Disagree                                   3 (5%)      5 (7%)
Strongly Disagree                     1 (2%)      2 (3%)
Do Not Know                          3 (5%)      2 (3%)

    Table 11 – The University Academic Advising Met My Needs

                                                 PS            CJ

Strongly Agree                   15 (25%)   19 (25%)
Agree                                 27 (44%)   43 (56%)
Disagree                            12 (20%)   12 (16%)
Strongly Disagree                1 ( 2%)     1 (1%)
Do Not Know                     6 (10%)     2 (3%)
 

    Table 12 – PS/CJ Career Advising

                                             PS                CJ

Yes                             52 (85%)   61 (79%)
No                                9 (15%)   16 (21%)
 

    Table 13 – University Career Center Advising

                                             PS                CJ

Yes                             10 (16%)   13 (17%)
No                              50 (82%)   63 (82%)
Missing                         1  (2%)     1 (1%)

If there are any weaknesses in advising it may be in the University Career Center.  The students either are not using the Center or they are not getting what they need.  It may be the former since they are probably relying mostly on the advising they get in the Department.  In the future we need to change the way we ask this question so that we can identify if there is a problem with the Center.

    Table 14 – Writing Skills

                                         PS        CJ

Strongly Agree             25 (41%)   23 (30%)
Agree                          33 (54%)   47 (61%)
Disagree                        1 (2%)      2 (3%)
Strongly Disagree           0 (0%)      2 (3%)
Do Not Know                2 (3%)      2 (3%)
Missing                                            1 (1%)
 

    Table 15 – Speaking Skills

                                         PS        CJ

Strongly Agree           22 (36%)   19 (25%)
Agree                         32 (53%)   48 (62%)
Disagree                       4 (7%)      6 (8%)
Strongly Disagree          0 (0%)      0 (0%)
Do Not Know               3 (5%)      3 (4%)
Missing                                          1 (1%)
 

    Table 16 – Computer Skills

                                         PS        CJ

Strongly Agree           9 (15%)   11 (14%)
Agree                      35 (57%)   38 (49%)
Disagree                  12 (20%)   19 (25%)
Strongly Disagree       0 (0%)      2 (3%)
Do Not Know            5 (8%)      6 (8%)
Missing                                       1 (1%)

Improving student computer skills seems to be the one area that we can improve in since more than 24 percent of our students feel that they have not attained adequate skills.  We may in part already be addressing this since we have just started offering a class in Management Information Systems (MIS) and we have added a lab component to our research methods class (PS 3115) making it a four hour course.

    Table 17 – Special designators -- Important

                                     PS        CJ

Strongly Agree           12 (20%)   21 (27%)
Agree                         31 (51%)   41 (53%)
Disagree                       8 (13%)   5 (7%)
Strongly Disagree          2 (3%)      2 (3%)
Do Not Know               8 (13%)   7 (9%)
Missing                                         1 (1%)

When asked what they felt needed to be improved in the Department the predominant answer was that we needed to increase the number of courses and some mentioned that we should teach statistics in our Department.  No other trend was noticeable in the responses.

Clearly we are doing well as a Department.  Our majors were complementary of the faculty and were generally satisfied with the courses.  Statistics is the only course that was repeatedly mentioned as a problem.  Students felt that they were getting out of the courses what they needed.  More than 85 percent felt that their major was effective in preparing them for their future endeavors.  Our goal is to continue providing a quality education to our students and to assure that they become active, productive, politically engaged citizens upon graduation.