What is program evaluation and why is it important?

All OTA and OTR programs must evaluate how successful their programs are. This is called program evaluation. It is the responsibility of Jamestown Community College Occupational Therapy Assistant Program to communicate these findings to the public. The public may include interested students and their families, consumers, accrediting bodies, potential employers, and the community at large.

Program evaluation allows faculty to objectively measure their strengths and weaknesses to improve the program. This information can also be used by the public before applying to the program, hiring our graduates, or investing resources. Evaluating a program is important to make good decisions. Would you invest in a car that has a poor rating? No! Being a smart consumer is important!

What are the evaluation measures used by the Occupational Therapy Assistant Program faculty?

There are numerous measures that the program uses. On this site you will find:

Attrition Data: this tells you how many students enrolled in the program that did not complete the program. This can be for various reasons (i.e.: poor grades, change of major, etc.).

NBCOT Examination results: The National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy is charged with developing national examinations for students to take following their graduation from either OTA or OTR programs. This examination is a bar that indicates that students who pass have the skills and abilities to be hired as entry-level practitioners. These results are correlated to the quality of education that students receive. A high passage rate is one sign of a good program! Like anything, pass rates fluctuate for a variety of reasons such as test anxiety and learning disabilities. Examining the number of students who retook the exam and passed is a good statistic to note!

Graduate job placement: Following graduation, the program tracks students to see how many successfully get jobs. Data is collected via survey and by talking directly with previous students. This is valuable data to evaluate. Being marketable is important.

Employer Satisfaction: Evaluating how employers feel about our student’s skills and abilities is important. It is important that the students who are hired in local area meet the needs of the employers. The level of employer satisfaction is another quality measure of the program’s ability to develop qualified occupational therapy assistants.

If you have questions about any of the data found on the site please feel free to call or email the OTA department faculty.

Program Evaluation Outcome Data: Results of the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy Examination

NBCOT Certification Results:  For the three most recent calendar years (2010, 2011, and 2012), the performance of the graduates of the occupational therapy assistant program on the National Board for Certification in Occupation Therapy (NBCOT) certification examination was as follows:

 EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION EVALUATION OUTCOME DATA

 *Data is not representative of all graduates.