The mission of the University of West Georgia’s graduate programs in ABA is to prepare compassionate, competent scientist-practitioners who embody professional excellence and social responsibility. We educate and nurture future behavior analysts to serve as agents of positive change in school- and clinic-based settings, where their expertise can disrupt the perpetuation of harmful practices and ensure all learners engage in meaningful educational experiences.
Our graduate programs cultivate practitioners who are dedicated to lifelong professional growth, grounded in trauma-informed and neurodiversity-affirming practices, and driven by a commitment to equity and compassion. We prepare graduates to celebrate learner individuality, prioritize dignity and autonomy, and implement evidence-based interventions that honor the unique identities and priorities of the learners, families, and communities they serve.
Our graduate programs develop behavior analysts who actively engage in service, advocacy, and collaboration, acknowledging the field's history while championing practices that center learner safety, agency, and socially significant outcomes. Our graduates emerge as critical consumers of research, reflective scientist-practitioners, and dedicated mentors who will lead the profession toward a more inclusive, responsive, and compassionate future.
Goals and Objectives
Rooted in the competencies as outlined below, upon successful completion of these programs, students will demonstrate at least a Rookie level of proficiency on Test Content Outline items associated with the following program competencies (i.e., Program Learning Outcomes, PLOs):
Foundations of Applied Behavior Analysis
Students will explain the scientific foundations of behavior analysis by identifying its goals, philosophical assumptions, and core dimensions; differentiating among major branches of the field; describing behavior from a radical behaviorism perspective; and accurately distinguishing key behavior- and stimulus-related concepts.
Behavior Measurement Basics
Students will identify and operationally define target behaviors, design valid and reliable measurement systems, and collect and graph data.
Operant Conditioning Basics
Students will define core respondent and operant conditioning concepts, including reinforcement, punishment, extinction, motivating operations, and schedules of reinforcement; and apply this knowledge to design and evaluate preference assessments.
Behavior Change Basics
Students will design, implement, and evaluate reinforcement‑based procedures ethically, including the selection and development of feasible measurement systems, and interpretation of graphed data using visual analysis.
Behavior Assessment
Students will select, design, conduct, and evaluate ethical and culturally responsive behavior analytic assessments (e.g., indirect assessments, descriptive assessments, functional analyses, assessments of client strengths) to determine the need for behavior-analytic services and inform intervention development.
Behavior Change Tools & Tactics
Students will identify, describe, and apply evidence‑based behavior-change tactics (e.g., prompting and fading, modeling, differential reinforcement, shaping, chaining, tokens, time‑based schedules) that incorporate motivating operations and discriminative stimuli to teach and/or shape socially significant behaviors.
Instruction & Intervention
Students will use assessment data to develop and evaluate evidence-based intervention and/or instruction, including setting measurable intervention and/or instructional goals, selecting and designing contextually relevant and socially valid behavior-change procedures, monitoring treatment integrity and outcomes, and collaborating effectively with partners to make data‑based decisions about intervention effectiveness.
Generalization, Maintenance, and Fading
Students will program and evaluate stimulus/response generalization, emergent/generative performance, maintenance across time and settings, and systematic fading of prompts and artificial supports.
Experimental Design
Students will identify and describe single‑case experimental designs by distinguishing among independent and dependent variables and internal and external validity; identifying the defining features and relative strengths of single‑case and group designs; differentiating between design and analysis types; interpreting and critiquing single‑case data; and appropriately selecting and implementing single‑case designs in applied contexts.
Ethical and Professional Issues
Students will identify and apply BACB ethical standards to hypothetical scenarios by protecting confidentiality, avoiding multiple‑relationship risks, practicing within scope, planning for transition/discontinuation, and engaging in reflective, culturally humble professional conduct.
Personnel Supervision & Management
Students will establish equitable supervisory relationships, select supervision goals from performance assessments, implement behavioral skills training and other performance management strategies, and make data‑based decisions to improve supervisee practice and client outcomes.
Rating Criteria
Student proficiency with each Program Learning Outcome is evaluated using the following criteria:
Knowledge-Based TCO Items
Proficiency Level
Definition
Learner
Not yet demonstrating knowledge at the Rookie level.
Rookie
Given the technical definition, student can produce the term with no more than one error/prompt.
Intermediate
Given the technical definition, student can produce a technical definition with no more than one error/prompt.
Pro
Given a term, student can produce a technical definition, a lay definition, and an applied example.
Performance-Based TCO Items
Proficiency Level
Definition
Learner
Not yet demonstrating performance at the Rookie level.
Rookie
Student can identify (with rationale including ethical considerations), plan (with description of plan for training/supervision), and implement TCO item in a role-play context or with a client with between 6-10 errors/prompts across all areas (e.g., identify, plan, implement).
Intermediate
Student can identify (with rationale including ethical considerations), plan (with description of plan for training/supervision), and implement TCO item in a role-play context or with a client with no more than five errors/prompts across all areas (e.g., identify, plan, implement).
Pro
Student can identify (with rationale including ethical considerations), plan (with description of plan for training/supervision), and implement TCO item with a client with no more than two errors/prompts across all areas (e.g., identify, plan, implement).
Program Handbook
The ABA Program Handbook is available to admitted students upon acceptance and to potential students upon request. Please contact Program Coordinator, Dr. Brandy M. Locchetta (blocchetta@westga.edu).
The UWG ABA program is also supported by many part-time faculty who serve as both fieldwork supervisors and didactic coursework instructors.
Program Statistics
ABA Program Statistics
Time to Graduation
Attrition Rate
Overall Mean
5.4 semesters (range: 5-8)
0%
Cohort 1 M.Ed.
5.4 semesters (range: 5-8)
0%
First Time BCBA Exam Pass Rate
Data are not yet available - please check back soon!
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the requirements for graduation?
To be eligible for graduation from the ABA graduate programs, students must complete all coursework with a final grade of a C or better, complete all Capstone assignments with a grade of B or better, and complete the end of program seminar (SPED 6795) with a grade of S. All students must successfully complete SPED 7791 and SPED 7792 (practicum coursework) with a grade of S. During practicum courses, to earn an S, students must attend at least 80% of weekly synchronous individual and group supervision meetings regardless of their plans to apply and sit for the exam. All students will be provided with the opportunity to accrue supervised fieldwork within the program. Accruing supervised fieldwork hours is not guaranteed nor required for graduation.
