Program Review In Student Affairs

1. Program ReviewIn Student Affairs Office of the Vice President Division of Student Affairs Virginia Tech 2008 - 2009

2. What is Program Review? • A systematic mechanism to monitor the status, effectiveness, efficiency, and progress of programs and services provided • Both descriptive & evaluative • Tied closely to the mission, goals, and specified outcomes of a department • Comprehensive examination of what an office does and how well it performs to that end • Forward looking • Provides a snap-shot of where a department is currently and whether they are making progress toward departmental priorities and university-wide strategic planning

3. Why conduct a Program Review? • Process yields information that allows the department and the division to: • Identify future directions, needs, and priorities • Recognize and respond to strengths or weaknesses of programs and services • Assist in assessing a department’s relationships with and contributions to other programs within the university • Strengthen and improve programs and services offered to students and faculty

4. Why conduct a Program Review? • Continuous improvement • Accreditation commissions and governing bodies • Concerns about accountability to multiple constituents • Tight budgets and markets • Savvy consumers • Perceptions about learning and higher education

5. The Role of Assessment • Assessment is any effort to gather, analyze, and interpret evidence which describes a unit’s effectiveness (Shuch & Upcraft, 2001) • Assessment allows units to examine key questions, including: • What do we expect our students to know, be able to do, or value as a result of participating in our programs & services? • Do our students know, do and value these things? • Are they learning what we want them to learn? • How do we know?

6. Elements of Program Review One year process including: • Planning • Self-Study using professional standards • Completion of Program Review Report • Review of recommendations included in the report by the Executive Leadership Group

7. Phase 1: Planning • Establish an objective committee • Estimate a budget • Set a timeline • Gather information • Policies/procedures • Program descriptions • Assessment data that has been collected • Programmatic budget • Staffing and resource descriptions

8. Phase 2: Self-Study • Review items in Program Review Template • Decide on professional standards • CAS Standards • Professional Standards • Conduct self-study, using information collected to support findings and conclusions

9. Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS): Standards vs Guidelines • Standard, printed in BOLD TYPE, considered to be essential to successful professional practice • Use auxiliary verbs “must” and “shall” • Guideline, printed in LIGHT FACE TYPE, is a statement that clarifies or amplifies a standard. • Use auxiliary verbs “should” and “may” • Not required for compliance to be achieved; designed to offer suggestions & illustrations

10. Phase 3: Completion of Program Review Report • Complete Program Review Report template • Departments may wish to have a group or person external to their department review the completed report and provide feedback

11. Phase 4: Review of Report Recommendations • The Executive Leadership Group will review the completed Program Review Report focusing on the recommendations • Each department’s director will be scheduled to present their report to the Executive Leadership Group, typically this is done during the fall semester following completion of the report