Preparing for Accreditation

What CIOs Need to Know

Meridith Randall – ACCJC ALO for 17 years for 3 different colleges; never had a college receive a sanction; has written multiple self-evaluations, midterm reports, and FU reports; has served on 4 teams, most recently Oct. 2013

Mary Kay Rudolph – Renowned VP at SRJC; service on multiple accreditation teams

Who Are We?

How do you mobilize your campus?

Whom do you involve?

What documents do you need?

How will the work get done?

Internal Organization

Preparing for the External Team

◦ Ideally, teams are trained a few weeks ahead of the visit -- in reality, some team members may be added late to replace others

◦ Most teams have a couple of CEOs, a CIO, student services personnel, and should have faculty (but may not)

Preparing for Accreditation

Materials used to train Team Members◦ Handouts◦ Team members must draft a great deal of the

report based on the self-evaluation◦ Recently, the first meeting is on Monday, then

interviews begin immediately◦ Depending on the team, interviews may or may

not be coordinated◦ Team members may or may not follow guidelines

of professionalism

Team Preparation

A comfortable room with hard evidence Evidence at the hotel The ability to change interviews frequently Tech support on call Decent food Endless caffeine

What is an unreasonable expectation from a team?

What Does the Team Expect?

Anything you identified in your self-evaluation as a problem

Anything currently on ACCJC’s radar

Any particular interests of the team member

The Rubrics (which may be phased out)

Team Focus

A significant rearrangement of standards

Elimination of sub-standards

Some significant additions

And don’t call it a Self-Study!

New Standards Effective SP 2016

Mission (IA)◦ Some elements to consider:

Are intended students identified? Are learning outcomes mentioned or implied? Was development of mission statement inclusive? How is effectiveness assessed using data? What is cycle to review mission statement? Is it

followed? Is the review process inclusive? Can you demonstrate that the mission statement is

central to college planning? How is it communicated?

The Nitty-Gritty: Standard I

Don’t claim you review it regularly if you don’t

The new standards put more emphasis on using data to prove the college accomplishes its mission

Usually reviewed by CEOs on team

Mission Statement Realities

Key elements:◦ Dialogue about student learning and processes

What hard evidence do you have?

What results have come from dialogue?

What will your colleagues tell the team?

SLOs and SAOs moved to this section

Institution-set standards determined and published

Assuring Academic Quality and Institutional Effectiveness (IB)

Measurable goals◦ What was the process to set college goals?◦ Was it inclusive? Will staff say it was?◦ Where and how are they used in planning, resource allocation,

etc.?◦ What data is used to show progress toward goals?◦ Is the data disaggregated?

• Planning process• Is there broad involvement?• Are resources allocated consistent with goals?• Have the results of resource allocation been measured?• Are policies and practices regularly evaluated?

IB continued

Is all information given in any form to any group accurate?

Does catalog include elements listed separately?

Are students informed about costs? Does college have policies on academic

freedom and honesty, and publish them? Some language that applies mainly to for-

profits…

Institutional Integrity (IC)

IIA. Instructional Programs◦ While this is the heart of what we do at the

college, most colleges do not get into trouble for Standard II, with a couple of exceptions:

SLO assessment and comparable support for online students

Allocation of resources to support instruction, library, etc.

The Nitty-Gritty: Standard II

Must have some kind of program review/vitality assessment process

Must assess student learning needs to inform programs

Must determine if students meet learning outcomes at all levels, and use results for improvement

Current standards

Must use “delivery systems” that meet student needs and assess their effectiveness

Must have a process to determine what is offered as credit, community ed, pre-collegiate, etc.

Must have active advisory committees for CTE programs and graduates must meet employment standards

General education should include all components listed in the standard and GELOs should exist and be assessed

Must have program elimination process

Must publicize student learning assessment results

Syllabi must include course SLOs

Clock to credit hour standards

Emphasis on scheduling in a manner that facilitates student completion

Changes in New Standards

Need to have sufficient library, computer lab, tutoring and other services as evidenced by regular assessment

Must have “comparable services” online and at off-site locations, plus adequate access

Must address how services advance achievement of SLOs and assess the students

IIB. Library and Learning Support

Difficult to be sanctioned based on this section – must have “clear pathways” for students and support to reach goals

Essentially, there is a process to determine support needs and to assess their effectiveness (often through SAOs), including placement, advising, and online services

Standards for co-curricular and athletic programs, including relation to mission

IIC. Student Support Services

Technically, not under the CIO area and CIOs would rarely be assigned to this standard

Human Resources: should make sure faculty hiring follows a process and all faculty meet MQs or are approved through equivalency process approved by local Senate

As CIO, responsible for regular evaluation of all faculty

Standard III. Resources

Current standard: “Faculty…have, as a component of their evaluation, effectiveness in producing…learning outcomes.”

New standards: “The evaluation of faculty, academic administrators, and others….includes, as a component…consideration of how these employees use the results of the assessment of learning outcomes to improve teaching and learning.”

Also – “Faculty job descriptions include development of and review of curriculum as well as assessment of learning.”

The Big Issue

Must have a “sufficient number of qualified faculty” – will your faculty agree?

Must have a process to identify and deliver appropriate professional development for faculty, and evaluate what is provided

Must show impact of professional development

Must integrate part-time faculty into the college

Physical and Technology Resources: How are needs identified, funded and evaluated? How are allocations connected to college goals and student learning needs?

Is technology sufficient for identified student needs? Are academic employees trained?

Financial resources support student learning

DE Policy

Transfer of Credit

Contractual Relationships

ERs: Are often cited in sanctions

Policies and ERs

The Big Picture/Wrap Up

Whatever your process is for planning, assessing SLOs, resource allocation, etc., make sure you can produce DOCUMENTS and show that the process is evaluated regularly and results in changes.

Make sure (almost) everyone can tell the team what the processes are AND that they had opportunity for input. Keep evidence that employees were given chances to comment.

Meridith’s Advice

If you come through a visit with sanctions, it will likely be your fault as the ALO…..

But if you are successful, there will be “too many people to thank”

Just accept it….

And….