You are the program director of a clinical laboratory program and you receive a report of your students' pass rates from the American Board of Clinical Pathologists for their field certification exam.
Your students are tested in six different major areas in the field. Five of the scores are close to or exceed the mean score for the rest of the test takers in the nation. You notice that the mean score for all other test takers that year in clinical chemistry is 85%. Your program mean for clinical chemistry is 70% which is 15 points below the mean. What steps might you take as a program director to try to improve these scores? How would you analyze and document the changes you make? How would you analyze data to ensure your changes were successful? What confounding variables might impact program certification and licensure performance?