Criteria for Accreditation Making a Difference in Higher Learning

1. Criteria for Accreditation Making a Difference in Higher Learning

2. Regional Accrediting Bodies • Voluntary, non-governmental, regional accrediting organizations

3. Mission Statement • The Higher Learning Commission of NCA “Serving the common good by assuring and advancing the quality of higher learning”

4. Higher education requirements: • assure the public that enrolling is safe • assure other organizations (businesses, etc.) that they can be trusted to do reliable work • assure governments and other funders that they run their businesses effectively • provide services that meet their students and other stakeholders’ needs • continuously improve the quality of the services they provide

5. Quality Assurance • For the U.S. Department of Education • Federal student aid grants and guaranteed loans • For state regulatory or coordinating agencies • Administrative and educational confidence • For businesses • Employees hiring and educational benefits • For other higher education institutions • Credibility of credentials, transferability of credits • For students, parents, families • Honesty, reliability, security

6. What we do not assure • Value — Cost benefit ratio, efficiency, absence of waste • Match between institution’s services and student’s specific needs • Absence of fraud in all organizational activities

7. Focus of Accreditation • To assess the quality of an institution and its effectiveness • To assist the institution in making improvements in its operations and effectiveness • To provide mission-driven, peer controlled accreditation

8. Standard process sequence • Institution performs self-study and prepares report • Comprehensive team reads report and visits institution to conduct evaluation review • Team sends institution report with recommendations and advice • Commission processes review team recommendation and make accrediting decision

9. Self-Study • Multiple options for designing self-study • Special emphasis • Visit that includes specialized accrediting agency • Visits with other regional accrediting agencies • Sequential visits • Significant Institutional Change • Unique benefits and flexibility • Requires clarity, leadership, commitment, communication, and collaboration • Work closely with staff liaison

10. Creating the Self-Study • How do you create a self-evaluation process that makes a significant difference to your work and your institution? • What forums do you have for raising important questions and holding meaningful conversations that make this difference possible? • How might you connect such a transformative self-evaluation to the new criteria and the self-study process?

11. Team Report • Evolving: Two sections (Assurance, Advancement) • Assurance linked directly to evidence for meeting the Criteria and Core Components • Institutions may request topics for team consultation in the Advancement Section

12. From Current to New Criteria Current Criteria

13. The Commission offers two programs for achieving continued accreditation. Program to Evaluate & Advance Quality AQIP

14. Process and Timeline Fall 2001 Iterative process for new criteria launched; focus on involvement; including 1st input mailing (3-prong approach). Fall/Winter 01-02 Focus group drafts new criteria; feedback sought from all institutions & other stakeholders; study groups begin. Implemented - Spring 2005 2002 - 2003 Two sets regional workshops; multiple feedback mailings on two drafts; study and focus groups provide critique February 2003 Board adopts new Criteria.

15. New Criteria & program effective for all January 2005. Many piloting in 2004.

16. Fundamental Shifts …from inputs and resources to results, outcomes, performance. …from teaching to teaching and learning, intended broadly for students & employees …from looking backwards to a future focus …from autonomy to connection and interdependence …from uniformity to distinctiveness, flexibility, and differentiation

17. Program Pieces • Five Criteria • Twenty-one Core Components • Examples of Evidence • Four Categories of Operational Indicators

18. Holistic Themes • Learning-Focused • Future-oriented • Connected • Distinctive

19. Preparing for the Future Student Learning & Effective Teaching Mission & Integrity Mission & Integrity Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge Engagement & Service

20. Criterion Title Criterion Statement Necessary Attributes • Core Components • Make possible a fuller understanding of criterion • Each must be reviewed to constitute thorough evaluation • Serve with Criteria as guide for team evaluation • Examples of Evidence • Illustrative, possibilities, not all-inclusive • Define depth & breadth of each Core Component

21. Mission & Integrity The organization operates with integrity to ensure the fulfillment of its mission through structures and processes that involve the board, administration, faculty, staff, and students.

22. Mission & Integrity • The organization’s mission documents are clear and articulate publicly the organization’s commitments. • In its mission documents, the organization recognizes the diversity of its learners, other constituencies, and the greater society it serves.

23. Mission & Integrity • Understanding of and support for the mission pervade the organization. • The organization’s governance and administrative structures promote effective leadership and support collaborative processes that enable the organization to fulfill its mission.

24. Mission & Integrity • The organization upholds and protects its integrity.

25. Preparing for the Future Student Learning & Effective Teaching Mission & Integrity Mission & Integrity Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge Engagement & Service

26. Preparing for the Future The organization’s allocation of resources and its processes for evaluation and planning demonstrate its capacity to fulfill its mission, improve the quality of its education, and respond to future challenges and opportunities.

27. Preparing for the Future • The organization realistically prepares for a future shaped by multiple societal and economic trends. • The organization’s resource base supports its educational programs and its plans for maintaining and strengthening their quality in the future.

28. Preparing for the Future • The organization’s ongoing evaluation and assessment processes provide reliable evidence of institutional effectiveness that clearly informs strategies for continuous improvement. • All levels of planning align with the organization’s mission, thereby enhancing its capacity to fulfill that mission.

29. Preparing for the Future Student Learning & Effective Teaching Mission & Integrity Mission & Integrity Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge Engagement & Service

30. Student Learning & Effective Teaching The organization provides evidence of student learning and teaching effectiveness that demonstrates it is fulfilling its educational mission.

31. Student Learning & Effective Teaching • The organization’s goals for student learning outcomes are clearly stated for each educational program and make effective assessment possible. • The organization values and supports effective teaching

32. Student Learning & Effective Teaching • The organization creates effective learning environments. • The organization’s learning resources support student learning and effective teaching.

33. Preparing for the Future Student Learning & Effective Teaching Mission & Integrity Mission & Integrity Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge Engagement & Service

34. Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge The organization promotes a life of learning for its faculty, administration, staff, and students by fostering and supporting inquiry, creativity, practice, and social responsibility in ways consistent with its mission.

35. Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge • The organization demonstrates, through the actions of its board, administrators, students, faculty, and staff, that it values a life of learning. • The organization demonstrates that acquisition of a breadth of knowledge and skills and the exercise of intellectual inquiry are integral to its educational programs.

36. Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge • The organization assesses the usefulness of its curricula to students who will live and work in a global, diverse, and technological society. • The organization provides support to ensure that faculty, students, and staff acquire, discover, and apply knowledge responsibly.

37. Preparing for the Future Student Learning & Effective Teaching Mission & Integrity Mission & Integrity Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge Engagement & Service

38. Engagement & Service As called for by its mission, the organization identifies its constituencies and serves them in ways both value.

39. Engagement & Service • The organization learns from the constituencies it serves and analyzes its capacity to serve their needs and expectations. • The organization has the capacity and the commitment to engage with its identified constituencies and communities.

40. Engagement & Service • The organization demonstrates its responsiveness to those constituencies that depend on it for service. • Internal and external constituencies value the services the organization provides.

41. Preparing for the Future Student Learning & Effective Teaching Mission & Integrity Mission & Integrity Acquisition, Discovery, & Application of Knowledge Engagement & Service

42. Position Statements • Three position statements FOR THE COMMISSION: Assessment of Student Learning, Diversity, General Education • Statements are not policy • Statements provide background, explain the premises for Commission policies and why elements and emphases occur in the criteria

43. Annual Institutional Data Update: Operational Indicators • Data as part of an ongoing conversation • Annual collection process • Four categories of data(demographics, programs, financial strength, scope of activities) • Annual collection process • Ultimately provides trend data for self-evaluation and self-comparison

44. Academic Quality Improvement Programversustraditional accreditation Similarities and Differences

45. Normal standard process sequence • Institution performs self-study and prepares report • Comprehensive team reads report and visits institution to conduct evaluation review • Team sends institution report with recommendations and advice • Commission processes review team recommendation and make accrediting decision

46. Sequence for AQIP process • Institution attends Strategy Forum and commits to Action Projects, annually updated • Institution prepares and makes public its Systems Portfolio • AQIP team reviews portfolio and provides actionable feedback report

47. Academic Quality Improvement Criteria • The criteria provide lenses for examining groups of related processes • The criteria promote a non-prescriptive dialogue about how an institution determines and achieves its goals • Each criterion inquires into processes (approach & deployment), results, and improvement

48. Each AQIP Criterion asks: • How stable, well-designed, and robust are your systems and processes? • How consistently do you deploy and employ your systems and processes? • How satisfying and good are the results your systems and processes achieve? • How do you use your performance data to drive improvement?

49. Leading and Communicating Valuing People Helping Students Learn Understanding Students’ and other Stakeholders’ Needs Building Collaborative Relationships Accomplishing Other Distinctive Objectives Planning Continuous Improvement Supporting Institutional Operations Measuring Effectiveness

50. Overall, the AQIP questions ask: • Are you doing the right things — the things that are most important in order to achieve your institution’s goals? • Are you doing things well — effectively, efficiently, in ways that truly satisfy the needs of those you serve?