Partnership: the heart of consistency in Site Visits

1. Jay Lubinsky, Ph.D., CCC-A/SLP, ASHA Fellow Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Communication Disorders Governors State University, University Park, IL Council on Academic Accreditation in Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Partnership: the heart of consistency in Site Visits

2. Needs for Consistency in the Site Visit • Accredited and accreditation-seeking programs expect to be treated similarly (and they talk to each other) • Accrediting agencies need to have reasonably consistently-styled input from site visits to make consistent decisions (realize that in some professions, the site visit team actually makes the accreditation decision).

3. Needs for Consistency (cont’d) • Site visit report must reflect the observations of the site visitors as reported to the program on site. • Findings must not be interpreted/modified by the agency.

4. Uniqueness: A Challenge to Consistency

5. Uniqueness (cont’d) • Site Visitors as individuals are professional people with unique ideas, experiences, and biases. • Each site visit team is unique and develops its own modus operandi, decision-making, and personal interactions. • Each site visit is unique. Happens at a particular historical moment in the life of each visited program. There is no opportunity for reliability.

6. Uniqueness (cont’d) • Professions vary in the role of the site visit in making accreditation decisions. For CAA, the site visit is one (albeit critical) piece of evidence as the Council makes the decision. • The above will challenge consistency but not necessarily the quality of the site visit.

7. partnership: minimizing the challengeS

8. Partnership I: The Agency and Site Visitors • Training and Education • Agency needs to provide initial and ongoing education regarding its needs and expectations for site visits. • Agency needs to collect evaluation data from stakeholders and share with site visitors. • Site visitors need to provide ongoing evaluation and recommendations to agency

9. Agency and Site Visitors (cont’d) • Training and Education (cont’d) • Both components of the partnership must take part seriously in educational activities and opportunities. • Agency should provide resources (nowadays on-line) to facilitate the site visit and site visitors must remain familiar with them

10. Partnership II: Site Visitors and Programs • Perhaps not thought of as a partnership, as one is evaluating and the other is being evaluated • Both partners have vested interest in a successful site visit • Site visitors need to make the site visit process as transparent as possible • Site visitors need to put in the report exactly the same findings they report to the program on site • Programs need to make the site visit as easy as possible

11. Partnership III: Programs and Agencies • Agency needs to consistently interpret and apply standards • Program needs to provide feedback to agency and query any areas that are unclear • Programs need to feel free to provide input to agencies regarding standards and procedures.

12. Consistency in My Activities • ASHA/CAA have been clear in expectations • Provide/provided initial and ongoing training • Communicate early and often regarding changes • Provide ample resources • Provide opportunity for input and dialogue