Preparing for Accreditation

1. Preparing for Accreditation What CIOs Need to Know

2. Who Are We? • 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 --

3. Preparing for Accreditation • 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)

4. Team Preparation • 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

5. What Does the Team Expect? • 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?

6. Team Focus • 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

7. The Nitty-Gritty: Standard I • Mission Statement (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? • 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?

8. Mission Statement Realities • Don’t claim you review it regularly if you don’t • The proposed standards put more emphasis on using data to prove the college accomplishes its mission • Usually reviewed by CEOs on team

9. Improving Institutional Effectiveness (IB) • 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?

10. IB continued • 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? • Planning process • Is there broad involvement? • Are resources allocated consistent with goals? • Have the results of resource allocation been measured?

11. The Nitty-Gritty: Standard II • 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.

12. Current standards • 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Changes in New Standards • Syllabi must include course SLOs • Clock to credit hour standards • Emphasis on scheduling in a manner that facilitates student completion • Student Support and Library and Learning Support Services are one section

16. IIB. Student Support Services • Difficult to be sanctioned based on this section • Essentially, there is a process to determine support needs and to assess their effectiveness (often through SAOs), including placement, advising, and online services • In new standards, catalog requirements are listed in a separate section

17. IIC. Library and Learning Support • 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 information competency and assess the students

18. Changes in New Standards • IIC is folded into IIB • May or may not indicate a de-emphasis on libraries and learning centers • May reflect difficulty in finding librarians to serve on teams • CCL has protested the change

19. Standard III. Resources • 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 • As CIO, responsible for regular evaluation of all faculty

20. The Big Issue • Current standard: “Faculty…have, as a component of their evaluation, effectiveness in producing…learning outcomes.” • What are the ways to address this? • New standards: “The evaluation of faculty, academic administrators, and others….includes, as a component…consideration of the effectiveness of producing [student learning].”

21. 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

22. 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? • Contractual agreements, particularly with non-accredited entities

23. Policies and ERs • DE Policy • Transfer of Credit • Contractual Relationships • ERs: Are often cited in sanctions

24. The Big Picture/Wrap Up

25. Meridith’s Advice • 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.

26. And…. • 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….