title: Quality benchmarks in undergraduate psychology programs.
abstract: Performance benchmarks are proposed to assist undergraduate psychology programs in defining their missions and goals as well as documenting their effectiveness. Experienced academic program reviewers compared their experiences to formulate a developmental framework of attributes of undergraduate programs focusing on activity in 8 domains: curriculum, assessment issues, student learning outcomes, program resources, student development, faculty characteristics, program climate, and administrative support. A continuum of performance was conceptualized for each attribute in each of the domains to characterize underdeveloped, developing, effective, and distinguished achievement for undergraduate programs. The authors hope to inspire a national conversation about program benchmarks in psychology in order to improve program quality, encourage more effective program reviews, and help optimally functioning programs compete more successfully for resources on the basis of their distinguished achievements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Moravian College, Bethlehem, PA 18018-6650, USA. dunn@moravian.edu
authors.forename: Dana S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Dunn
authors.forename: Maureen A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: McCarthy
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: Jane S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Halonen
authors.forename: G William
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D019985:Benchmarking / Q000458:organization & administration; D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards; D005178:Faculty / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D011361:Professional Competence; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011584:Psychology / Q000193:education*; D011786:Quality Control; D014481:United States