Validation of Subject Areas of CAS Professional Studies Standards for Master’s Level Student Affairs Professional Preparation Programs

Abstract

The standards for Master’s Level Student Affairs Professional Preparation Programs, first published in 1986, were among the first standards published by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS; Ebbers & Kruempel, 1992). With the latest revision in 2012, the CAS standards for preparation of student affairs professionals at the master’s level are valuable in that they “provide criteria by which an academic program of professional preparation can judge its educational efforts” (CAS, 2012, p. 349), based on a consensus of experts in the profession. The standards outline three areas of the curriculum: (a) Foundational Studies, (b) Professional Studies, and (c) Supervised Practice. Each of these areas outlines specific subjects that should be covered throughout the curriculum of master’s programs. The understanding of the impact of the CAS standards on learning in master’s programs in student affairs is limited. There are only two published studies describing surveys of recent graduates of programs using instruments based on the curriculum standards outlined by CAS. Alumni of these programs report high levels of confidence in their learning in areas outlined as important by CAS (Cuyjet, Longwell-Grice, & Molina, 2009; Young & Janosik, 2007). The exceptions to this were graduates’ preparation in grant writing techniques (Cuyjet et al., 2009), Validation of Subject Areas of CAS Professional Studies Standards for Master’s Level Student Affairs Professional Preparation Programs