Art Education
College of Arts and Architecture
School of Visual Arts
Art Education Graduate Program
English Language Competency Examination
The Graduate School requires each graduate program to certify the English language competency of all doctoral candidates. The following procedures are used to assess the English language competency of all students who seek the Ph.D. degree in the Art Education Program in the School of Visual Arts at Penn State.
Written Examination
Prior to the candidacy examination, students new to the doctoral program in art education will be required to take a written examination that will assess their competency in using the English language. In the written examination, students will be asked to read a journal article or a book chapter from the literature of art education, art, or education. (The article will be selected by the graduate faculty in art education. All students seeking candidacy during a given semester will respond to the same article during the same time.) The students will be asked to prepare a short (four- to six-page) written critical interpretation of the article they have read. Four hours will be allocated for reading the article and for writing a critical response based on the article. The response may be written on a computer.
Assessment Criteria for the English Language Competency Examination
Four criteria will be used to assess competency in writing. The criteria are:
Purpose and Clarity. The degree to which the student has demonstrated an understanding of the position taken in the article and has established a reasoned response and critical interpretation.
Organization. The degree to which the student has produced a unified and coherent composition.
Specificity and Evidence. The degree to which specific evidence from the article is documented, integrated, and used to support arguments in the student's writing; the degree to which counter arguments are supported through evidence.
Usage, Mechanics, and Grammar. The degree to which the student has exhibited corrected usage (tense, word choice), spelling, punctuation, grammar.
The degree to which the student has mastered these criteria will be marked by each member of the candidacy committee. The marking scale has two categories, satisfactory and unsatisfactory, with a space for comments. (See the attached evaluation form.)