FAMU’s occupational therapy program was placed on probation by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE) on April 17, 2011 for failing to meet the required 70 percent first-time passage rate benchmark on the national licensure examination despite the fact that its overall passage rate is about 90 percent.ACOTE only counts first-time passage rates on the National Certification Examination for Occupational Therapists for the purpose of accreditation.
For example, six out of FAMU’s 14 occupational therapy graduates passed the certification exam during their first try between 2007 and 2009. That gave the program a 42 percent first-try passage rate for those years. Most of those students did go on to pass the exam when they retook the test.
FAMU is currently maintaining a 50 percent first-try passage rate. The overwhelming majority of its students continue to pass the test during retakes.
According to ACOTE, “probationary accreditation is usually limited to 1 year. It may not extend beyond 2 years.”
FAMU established its Division of Occupational Therapy in the School of Allied Health back in 1989. It awarded more than 200 baccalaureate degrees up to 2006, after which it was transitioned into a master’s level program. The program’s website states that occupational therapy practitioners “work with persons of all ages and cultural backgrounds whose independence has been impacted by physical and/or mental injury or illness, developmental or learning disabilities, or adverse environmental conditions.”
The Division of Occupational Therapy is not the only FAMU program that has struggled with its first-time passage rates on critical exams but still maintained a very high overall passage rate.
Many FAMU College of Law students take the bar exam two to three times before passing. The law school’s overall passage rate is close to 80 percent. A 75 percent overall bar passage rate meets the requirements of the American Bar Association (ABA). The ABA counts overall passage rates for the purpose of accreditation, unlike ACOTE.