Formative feedback, rubrics, and assessment of professional competency through a speech-language pathology graduate program.

Professional competencies independent of discipline-specific knowledge and skills are addressed by most allied health professions. This paper presents the process of developing and testing a Graduate Student Development Profile (GSDP) in rubric format. In addition to documenting behaviors, a rubric system provides formative feedback helpful to student learning and development as a professional. A rubric for rating responsibility for learning, critical thinking, cognitive flexibility, professionalism, and communication, each with specific subcategories, was created, developed, and implemented by faculty and clinical staff to guide the three sequential evaluations each master's level student receives during the five-semester speech-language pathology program. Pilot scoring of master's students was used to calibrate and refine the GSDP before official implementation. Two evaluations were completed during faculty meetings to familiarize users with the GSDP. A third evaluation was conducted via a secured website. In each case, resulting scores and specific comments for each student were shared during a faculty meeting before being presented to students individually. The GSDP documents the speech-language pathology student's professional competency demonstrated across academic, clinical, and interpersonal settings. The web-based version brings convenience and efficiency to the often formidable, but fundamentally necessary, process of providing formative and summative feedback to students.