Evaluation of Student Performance in the Field Practicum

The student's performance in the field practicum is evaluated as follows:

1. For all students, the field instructor's written evaluation of the student's performance in completing the learning contract is submitted to and reviewed by the field liaison for grading purposes; also, information from field visits and other contacts with the field instructor and student will be considered in determining the grade.
2. For undergraduates only, the field liaison will also incorporate the quality of work and self-reflection demonstrated in the field journal in determination of the grade.

Grading: Grading for the field will be Credit/Fail. The field liaison is responsible for assignment of the field grade with input from the field instructor as stated above. The field liaison will be in frequent contact with the field instructor and the student, and both the student and the field instructor are urged to bring any difficulties related to the practicum to the attention of the field liaison, in order that satisfactory learning can be developed and maintained (for more information, see "Student Performance Problems in Field Instruction," "Guidelines for Problem-Solving in Field Education," "Termination from the Field," and "Appeals," in this manual).

Procedures: At the end of each quarter, no later than the date designated on the academic calendar included in this manual, field instructors must submit a written evaluation of each student's progress for that quarter. Though this evaluation is required to be submitted at the end of each quarter, evaluation should be regarded as an ongoing part of regularly scheduled supervisory conferences between the student and the field instructor and should be based on the mutually agreed upon learning contract. Therefore, it is expected that the student will actively participate in the ongoing process of his or her evaluation. The formal end-of-the-quarter evaluation procedure is as follows:

1. While allowing for ample time to complete the process, the student will incorporate the evaluation elements into the learning contract and will print a copy for the field instructor to use as an evaluation document. Alternately, the field instructor may work with the evaluation document on a disk with printing to be done later.
2. The field instructor will hold an evaluation conference with the student for purposes of discussion and will complete the evaluation.
3. The field instructor will provide a score for each learning task according to the scoring guide provided below.
4. The field instructor will provide comments which discuss the student's strengths and achievements and outline recommendations for future development for each of the seven goals of field.
5. The field instructor will sign the evaluation. The student will also sign, which indicates that he or she has read and discussed the evaluation with the field instructor. If an augmented field instructor is involved, he or she will also sign the evaluation.
6. If the student disagrees with the field instructor's evaluation, he or she will be encouraged to submit an additional statement to be included with the field instructor's evaluation.
7. The student will forward the evaluation to the field liaison by the announced date.

Evaluation Document Elements: Beginning with the learning contract and prior to submitting it to the field instructor for completion, the student will insert the following elements into the document, thus, creating an integrated learning contract/evaluation document:

1. Change "Learning Contract" to "Evaluation."
2. Add "Total number of hours in the field this quarter: ________."
3. Add the following scoring guide:

   Please rate the student's performance on each of the following learning tasks using the following rating scale:

   N		No Opportunity to Demonstrate/Not Applicable
   1		Unsatisfactory Performance
   2		Below Average Performance
   3		Satisfactory Performance
   4		Above Average Performance
   5		Superior/Outstanding Performance

4. Add the following statement after each learning task:

   Performance in completing the objectives, and learning tasks: N 1 2 3 4 5

5. Add the following statement after each of the seven goals:

   Please discuss below the student's strengths and make recommendations for further development related to the above goals, objectives, and learning tasks:

6. At the end, add a general comments section as follows:

   Additional comments (field instructor elaborates on anything else related to the student's overall performance in the field):

7. Create a field instructor's signature line and date line.
8. Create a field liaison's signature line and date line.
9. Create an augmented field instructor's signature line and date line (if applicable).
10. Create a student's signature line and date line after the following statement is added:

    I have read and discussed this evaluation:

11. Finally, add the following statement:

    Student's appended statement indicating area(s) of disagreement and the reasons (if applicable):

Sample Evaluation (Word)