Overview
Why are KASA exams required?
The 2023 ASHA standards for the CCC-SLP focus on educational outcomes. The focus on outcomes ensures that all graduate students achieve the knowledge- and skills-based competencies that are measured in KASA exams. Graduates of the program must have achieved competencies in all the areas shown on the KASA Summary in Calipso to earn the ASHA CCC-SLP.
When do students participate in KASA exams?
Students usually begin taking KASA exams in their first semester of graduate seminars and continue until they have completed taking Cognitive and Social KASAs that are outside of seminars.
Are there any benefits to KASA exams?
Students benefit because the graduate program needs to assess student's progress toward achieving the expected knowledge- and skill-based competencies-a process referred to as formative assessment. Formative assessment allows for the early identification of the need for additional help instead of waiting until the end of the program.
The public benefits because students are assessed in the final stages of their education as well-a process referred to as summative assessment-and this ensures that they have achieved the critical set of knowledge-based and skill-based competencies needed to serve the public competently.
The combination of formative and summative assessments that constitute KASA ensure that students who complete the program have truly gained the knowledge and the skills that they need to function as competent professionals.
Does every university training program have KASAs?
Every graduate program in communicative disorders that is accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is required to have assessment of student’s learning. Each program differs in how they assess student’s learning outcomes, but each program needs to meet the same requirements for demonstrating graduates' knowledge-based and skill-based competencies using a valid, reliable set of assessment strategies and tools.
KASA Procedures
The student must pass written comprehensive examination (referred to as KASAs) to earn the Master of Science Degree in Communicative Disorders. The KASA evaluates the Knowledge-Based Competencies delineated by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association as “big 9” of Articulation and Phonology, Fluency, Voice and Resonance, Developmental and Acquired Receptive and Expressive Language (two separate exams), Hearing, Swallowing, Cognitive Aspects of Communication, Social Aspects of Communication, and Communication Modalities.
Students are required to pass all 10 KASAs to fulfill the M.S. terminal evaluation requirement. To pass a KASA Competency Area (e.g., Fluency), the student must pass all individual competencies within that area.
1. The COMD 501 course instructs students on the nature of the KASA Competency Areas and the pre-requisite coursework required prior to testing in each Competency Area.
2. Exam questions for each Competency Area (with the exception of the Case Study) are posted on the KASA website. Any changes to specified questions will be provided to students.
3. Eight of the KASAs are administered within the seminars and Cognitive and Social KASAs are administered outside of the seminars and requires an application to take it. Students must submit their application to take these KASA exams at least 30 days prior to the examination week. The information will be posted in Canvas COMD Community.
4. The Cognitive and Social KASA Exams are given once per semester: 1) the fourth week of the semester in September, and 2) the fourth week of the semester in February. These KASAs consist of take-home part and a case study which is administered via Zoom and proctored.
5. To avoid any biases by graders, only student’s CWID is required on their KASA exams.
6. Faculty members will score questions and determine if all individual competencies within each KASA Competency Exam are met. Second opinions shall be requested when an individual competency is failed. Disagreements will be discussed between the first and second readers. Final decisions will be submitted in writing to students.
7. If the student fails to pass any individual competency within any KASA Competency Exam, s/he must complete remediation that can include (but is not limited to): oral conference, oral test of the failed competency question, and/or written rewrite of the failed competency question. Two attempts to satisfactorily pass the remediation will be allowed.
8. Upon satisfactory completion of the remediation, the faculty reader signs the Failed Competency Completion form and submits the form to the Graduate Adviser and the department Chair. Subsequently, the student’s KASA page in Calipso will be updated.
9. At the end of the Graduate Program, the Department Graduate Adviser will notify the Graduate Studies Office when the student has passed all 10 KASA exams, thus completing the Terminal Evaluation requirement.
