Capstone Option C (Comprehensive Exam)
Master of Arts in Education

Back

Course Requirement
Students selecting Option C must successfully complete 33 semester hours of approved credit. Of the 33 hours, 21 must be in the foundations core, nine hours in the elective area, and three hours in ED 560, the Foundation Seminar. Candidates must either have completed this course prior to taking the examination or be taking the course during the semester of the exam.

Candidates must pass a final written examination. During ED 510, students who choose the examination as the capstone experience should notify the Coordinator of the Master's of Arts in Education Program of their choice. Each exam will be designed to support the student's interests and area of professional practice. The exam will be a question/problem of some length, depth and relevance or a professional article to which the student will respond using the same categories of response as the problem based exam and applying content from the foundational courses. The exam will be the student's written paper. The student's written paper must have the following characteristics:

• A length of not less than 10 pages
  
• A bibliography using APA standards for formatting
  
• Adequate and credible professional literature
  
• Inclusion of the following sections:
  
  • Summary of the article or the literature if problem based
    
  • Contrary or opposing opinions as found in professional literature
    
  • Student's response to and opinion of professional literature and/or article
    
  • Implications for the student's practice
    
  • Summary
    

Examination Eligibility
The examination may be taken when the student has achieved a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.0 and has completed all course work in the foundations core. For students selecting Option C, the examination is a component of ED560 and enrollment in this course is required before the student takes the examination. Any student who fails the examination may take another examination. A student who fails the second examination may be dropped from the program.

Examination Process
The entire examination process must be done within a calendar month. The student will pick up the exam on the designated Friday afternoon by 5:00 pm and will have 10 business days and three weekends to complete the work. The student's response to the exam questions must be received by fax, as an attachment to an email or through United States mail on the Monday following the third weekend. Two faculty members will be designated to read the exam, one of the student's choosing and one picked at random from the faculty who teaches graduate courses. The faculty has one week to read the exam and make the pass or fail decision. If one faculty member passes the student and one fails the student, the coordinator will read the exam and make the pass/fail determination. If the student passes, an interview will be scheduled and attended by the faculty who read the exam. The purpose of the interview is to determine the student's ability to articulate his/her findings and answer faculty questions to clarify and/or expand upon information contained in the writing. Upon completion of the interview, the attending faculty will designate pass or fail on a form designed for that purpose and pass on the recommendation to the coordinator.