FROM INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESS TO QUALITY

ENHANCEMENT

WILL IT ENHANCE EFFECTIVENESS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION?

CONSTANCE L. HOWELLSEASTFIELD COLLEGE

GABRIELA BORCOMANBILL J PRIEST INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

What is institutional effectiveness?

• Ability of an institution to match its performance to its established purposes as stated in its mission (Peter Ewell)

• Closely related to planning (Alfred, Nichols, Roueche)

• …ongoing, comprehensive, and institutionally integrated system composed of several layers of complementary processes of planning and evaluation (SACS?)

What is institutional effectiveness?

• …ongoing, comprehensive, and institutionally integrated system comprised of several layers of complementary processes of planning and evaluation (SACS 1998 17).

• ….deciding factor in assessing institutional effectiveness is the extent to which it achieves its goals and objectives(MSA/CHE 1994, 16).

WHAT IS QUALITY ENHANCEMENT?

AKA

Continuous Quality Improvement (Deming)

Total Quality Improvement

Quality Improvement

Quality Enhancement – (SACS)

WHAT IS QUALITY?ISO 9000

Internationally accepted standard defining the concept of quality

“...the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs”

WHAT IS QUALITY ENHANCEMENT?W. Edwards Deming – Continuous Quality

Improvement

• Quality defined by the customer

• Understanding and reducing variation are vital in every process

• All significant long-lasting improvement must emanate from top management’s commitment to improvement

• Change and improvement must be continuous and involve every member of an organizations and must include suppliers. (Gabor, 1990)

WHAT IS QUALITY ENHANCEMENT?SACS – Quality Enhancement

….expects institutions to dedicate themselves to enhancing the quality of their programs and services within the context of their missions, resources, and capacities, and creating an environment in which teaching, research, and learning occur. (Principals of Accreditation – SACS

www.sacscoc.org/accrrevproj.asp )

WHAT IS QUALITY ENHANCEMENT?SACS – Quality Enhancement

“….quality enhancement is at the heart of the Commission’s philosophy of accreditation is at the heart of the Commission’s philosophy of accreditation; …Although evaluation of an institution’s educational quality and its effectiveness is a difficult task, requiring careful analysis and professional judgment, an institution is expected to document quality and effectiveness in all its major aspects.” (Principals of Accreditation – SACS

www.sacscoc.org/accrrevproj.asp )

APPLICATION OF CONCEPT OF QUALITY TO UNIVERSITIES (Europe)

• Quality = relationship between customer orientation and service being performed

• Customer = Student/research and development, consumers, those who need new information

• Responsibility= Those in charge/each individual

(Johnny Lindstrom)

HOW DOES IE AND QE DIFFER?

• IE MEASURES DIFFERENCE BETWEEN WHERE YOU ARE AND WHERE YOUR GOALS AND OBJECTIVES ARE.

• QE MEASURES THE AMOUNT OF IMPROVEMENT

• EFFECTIVENESS PLANS TEND TO BE MORE INDIVIDUALIZED WITH EACH UNIT SELECTING THEIR OWN GOALS AND OUTCOME MEASURES

IN WHAT WAYS ARE QE AND IE SIMILAR?

• Both include planning

• Both use evaluation/measurement

• Both stress improvement

• Both require “buy-in” or participation from various parts of the institution

QUALITY ENHANCEMENTConcepts

• Starts and ends with satisfying customers’ needs

• Continuous improvement of every process to meet internal and external customers’ needs

• Use statistics to measure variation

(Seymour, 1993)

QUALITY ENHANCEMENTPrinciples

• Quality is meeting and exceeding customer needs• Quality is everyone’s job• Quality is continuous improvement• Quality is leadership• Quality is human resource development• Quality is recognition and reward• Quality is teamwork• Quality is measurement• Quality is systematic problem-solving

INSTITUTIONAL EFFECTIVENESSPRINCIPLES

• Concise statement of institutional mission and objectives

• Identification of intended departmental outcomes• Means of assessment• Assessment of how much/whether of outcomes

and objectives• Use of assessment results to improve or adjust

institutional outcome or purposeDr. James Nichols

QUALITY ENHANCEMENTCUSTOMER SATISFACTION

• Customers are:– Internal customers: faculty, administrators– External customers: students, students’ parents,

prospective students, donors, media, community, regulatory agencies etc

• The customer: recipient of service• The customer should be satisfied• Customers are satisfied by services (instruction),

object (degree), or money (higher income) (Seymour, 1993)

QUALITY ENHANCEMENTCUSTOMER SATISFACTION

• Higher education must respond to the “multi-customer” requirements

• Students do not care about standard quality measures used by accrediting agencies, legislative bodies, or faculty committees

Research the needs of specific customers

(Seymour, 1993)

QUALITY ENHANCEMENTPROCESSES

• Quality is achieved understanding and continuously improving the processes that give rise to problems.

• There is no end to the improvement process

• Improvement process must include everybody in the institution

(Seymour, 1993)

QUALITY ENHANCEMENTPDCA

• PLAN– Design courses to meet students’ needs

• DO– Teach courses based on typical students and

circumstances

• CHECK– Assess how students use learning

– Survey students’ opinion

• ACT– Modify according to assessment findings

NTCCC IE/QE SURVEY2003-2004

• Sent to North Texas Community College Consortium Membership via on-line

• 55% return rate

• Purpose of survey– Determine whether institutions are using

quality enhancement or institutional effectiveness process or both

– Determine what changes are going be or have been implemented due to changes in SACS requirements

NTCCC IE/QE SURVEYRESULTS

• Which of the model types below currently dominates your institution’s effectiveness/quality processes?

Response %

Institutional Effectiveness Models 75%

Quality Enhancement/TQM 13%

Internally Designed Process – Unlike others

13%

NTCCC IE/QE SURVEYRESULTS

Would you describe your institution’s planning process as more:

71%

29%

0%

BOTTOM UP

TOP DOWN

TOP DOWN/BOTTOM UP

NTCCC IE/QE SURVEYRESULTS

Is your institution currently anticipating changes in the IE/QE processes?

18%

82%

YESNO

NTCCC IE/QE SURVEYRESULTS

Is your institution making changes in your IE/Quality process for reasons not related to changes in the SACS ?

14%

86%

YESNO

If you would like to participate in this survey please e-mail

Constance Howells at chowells@dcccd.edu

SOME CONCLUSIONSQuality enhancement will continue to include components of institutional effectiveness. Some discussions of quality enhancement actually assume institutional effectiveness as one requirement for achieving quality.

In adapting quality improvement from business to education, quality enhancement has become a hybrid between quality improvement and institutional effectiveness.

SOME CONCLUSIONSThe movement from IE to QE has not been universally embraced.

IE does not generally consider students as customers not education as a product

QE produces questions of “just who are the customers for colleges and universities?”

QE produces questions of “what are our products?”