Transcript Middle States Steering Committee Overview of Standards March 20, 2008 Standards at a Glance Standard 1: Mission and Goals – The institution’s Mission clearly defines the.

Middle States Steering
Committee
Overview of Standards
March 20, 2008
Standards at a Glance
Standard 1: Mission and Goals
– The institution’s Mission clearly defines
the purpose within the context of higher
education and indicates who the
institution serves and what it intends to
accomplish. The institutions stated goals
clearly specify how the institution will
fulfill its mission.
– The mission and goals are used to develop
and shape its programs and practices and
to evaluate its effectiveness.
Fundamental Elements of
Standard 1: Mission & Goals
• Clearly defined mission and goals;
• Mission and goals that relate to external
as well as internal contexts and
constituencies;
• Institutional goals that and consistent with
mission; and
• Goals that focus on student learning, other
outcomes, and institutional improvement.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 1: Mission and Goals
• How are the major themes of the mission
reflected in the institution’s goals?
• How are the institutions operations
consistent with its mission and goals
• How does the institution determine
whether it is achieving each aspect of its
mission?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 6: Integrity
– The institution demonstrates adherence to
ethical standards and its own stated policies,
providing support for academic and
intellectual freedom.
Fundamental Elements of
Standard 6: Integrity
• Fair and Impartial processes; published and
widely available to address student grievances
promptly, appropriately, and equitably;
• Fair and impartial practices in hiring, evaluation,
and dismissal of employees; Sound and ethical
practices and respect for individuals through its
teaching, scholarship/research, service, and
administrative practice.
• Equitable and appropriately consistent treatment
of constituencies
• Availability of information
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 6: Integrity
• How consistently does the institution follow
through on its stated policies?
• What evidence is there that the institution
adheres to principles of academic
freedom?
• What patterns, if any, are evident within
student grievances over the past three
years?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 2: Planning, Resource Allocation,
and Institutional Renewal
– An institution conducts ongoing planning and
resource allocation based on its mission and
goals, develops objectives to achieve them,
and utilizes the results of its assessment
activities for institutional renewal.
Implementation and subsequent evaluation
support the development and change
necessary to improve and maintain
institutional quality.
Fundamental Elements of
Standard 2: Planning, Resource Allocation,
and Institutional Renewal
• Goals and objectives or strategies, both
institution-wide and for individual units are clearly
stated, reflect conclusions drawn from
assessment results, and are linked to mission
and goal achievement;
• Planning and improvement processes are
clearly communicated and provide for
constituent participation;
• Decision-making processes are we– defined
• Periodic assessment
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 2: Planning, Resource Allocation,
and Institutional Renewal
• Is the relationship between the institution’s
strategic plan and the budget development
process well understood and effectively
implemented?
• How and why have institutional planning
processes changed over the past five years?
• What issues should the institution be planning
for?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 3: Institutional Resources
– The human, financial, technical, physical
facilities, and other resources necessary to
achieve an institution’s mission and goals are
available and accessible.
– The effective and efficient uses of the
institution’s resources are analyzed as part of
ongoing outcomes assessment.
Fundamental Elements of
Standard 3: Institutional Resources
• Strategies to measure and assess the use of
institutional resources required to support the
institution’s mission and goals are in place;
• Consistent policies are in place to determine
allocation of assets;
• A financial planning and budgeting process
aligned with the institution’s mission and goals
and plan that provides for an annual budget and
multi-year budget projections.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 3: Institutional Resources
• What are the most significant challenges facing
the institution relative to human resources,
technology resources, and physical plant
resources over the next five years?
• What steps have been taken to evaluate how
effectively resources are allocated and
expended? What specific changes have been
implemented and with what results?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 4: Leadership and
Governance
The institution’s system of governance
clearly defines the roles of institutional
constituencies in policy development and
decision-making. The governance
structure includes an active governing
body with sufficient autonomy.
Fundamental Elements of
Standard 4: Leadership & Governance
• A well-defined system of collegial
governance;
• Written governing documents;
• Appropriate opportunity for student input;
• Periodic assessment of the effectiveness
of institutional leadership and governance.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 4: Leadership & Governance
• In what ways and for what reasons have
the institution’s governance systems
changed over the past five years?
• What might improve institutional
governance?
• To what extent are existing structures
utilized for decision-making?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 5: Administration
The institution’s administrative structure and
services facilitate learning and
research/scholarship, foster quality
improvement, and support the institution’s
organization and governance.
Fundamental Elements of
Standard 5: Administration
• A chief executive whose primary responsibility is
to lead the institution toward the achievement of
its goals;
• A chief executive with the combination of
academic background, professional training,
and/or other qualities;
• Administrative leaders with appropriate skills,
degrees and training;
• Qualified staffing appropriate to the goals, type,
size, and complexity of the institution.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 5: Administration
• How effective are current processes to
review and improve administrative
operations?
• How can we be sure that administrative
structures are facilitating learning?
• When was the most recent review of the
effectiveness of administrative structures
undertaken?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 8: Student Admissions &
Retention
The institution seeks to admit students whose
interests, goals, and abilities are congruent
with its mission and seeks to retain them
through the pursuit of the students’
educational goals.
Fundamental Elements of
Standard 8: Student Admission and
Retention
• Admission policies developed and implemented,
that support and reflect the mission of the
institution;
Programs and services to ensure that admitted
students who marginally meet or do not meet the
institution’s qualifications achieve expected
learning goals;
• Statements of expected student learning
outcomes and information on institution-wide
assessment results;
• Ongoing assessment of student success,
including but not necessarily limited to retention.
Sample Questions
Standard 8: Student Admissions and
Retention
• Are retention goals consistent with long term
strategic and financial plans?
• Are the admissions goals sufficiently clear,
realistic and consistent with the institutions
mission?
• Is the institution successful in providing financial
assistance to students?
• How are lessons learned from retention studies
to improve academic and student support
programs?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 9: Student Support
Services
The institution provides student support
services reasonably necessary to enable
each student to achieve the institution’s
goals for students.
Fundamental Elements of
Standard 9: Student Support Services
• A program of student support services
appropriate to student strengths and needs,
reflective of institutional mission, consistent with
student learning expectations, and readily
available.
• Qualified professionals to supervise and provide
support services;
• Appropriate student advisement procedures and
processes;
• Reasonable and widely disseminated
procedures for equitably addressing student
complaints and grievances.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 9: Student Support Services
• How does the institution provide support to
enrolled students who are identified as being “at
risk”?
• What type of personal and social development
does the institution seek to foster?
• What changes in the provision of student
support services have been implemented over
the past five years?
• Which services should be improved, added,
expanded, or eliminated?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 10: Faculty
The institution’s instructional, research and
service programs are devised, developed,
monitored, and supported by qualified
professionals.
Fundamental Elements for
Standard 10: Faculty
• Faculty and other professionals are
appropriately prepared and qualified for the
positions they hold;
• Educational curricula are designed, maintained,
and updated by faculty;
• Faculty demonstrate excellence in teaching;
• Recognition of appropriate linkages among
scholarship, teaching, student learning,
research, and services
• Adherence to principles of academic freedom.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 10: Faculty
• How are faculty involved in academic program
development, assessment, and improvement?
• Are faculty development opportunities equitably
distributed?
• Are there differences across departments in the
criteria for faculty appointment, tenure, and
promotion?
• How has the utilization of part-time and adjunct
faculty changed over the last five years? What
has been the impact on student learning?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 11: Educational Offerings
The institution’s educational offerings
display academic content, rigor, and
coherence appropriate to its higher
education mission. The institution
identifies student learning goals and
objectives, including knowledge and skills,
for its educational offerings.
Fundamental Elements for
Standard 11: Educational Offerings
• Educational offerings congruent with the mission of the
institution and conducted at levels of rigor appropriate to
the programs and degrees offered;
• Formal undergraduate, graduate, and/or professional
programs are designed to foster a coherent student
learning experience;
• Program goals are stated in terms of student learning
outcomes;
• Collaboration among professional library staff, faculty
and administrators in fostering information literacy and
technological skills across the curriculum
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 11: Educational Offerings
• In what ways do transfer students have a
learning experience that is different from that of
students in the same program who have
completed all their courses at the institution?
• How well do students understand the purpose
and interrelationship of each requirement of their
academic program?
• How should we select and assess future
educational offerings?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 12: General Education
The institution’s curricula are designed so
that students acquire and demonstrate
college-level proficiency in general
education and essential skills, including at
least oral and written communication,
scientific and quantitative reasoning,
critical analysis and reasoning, and
technological competency.
Fundamental Elements for
Standard 12: General Education
• The general education program has sufficient
scope students’ intellectual growth, and
equivalent to at least 30 semester hours for
baccalaureate program;
• Consistent with institutional mission;
• Skills and abilities developed in general
education are applied in the major area of
concentration;
• Assessment of general education outcomes
within the institution’s overall plan for assessing
student learning.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 12: General Education
• What evidence exists that the institution’s
graduates meet expected, acceptable levels of
competency in oral and written communication,
scientific and quantitative reasoning,
technological capabilities, information literacy,
and critical analysis and reasoning?
• In what ways and for what reasons has the
general education program been changed over
the past five years?
• How is general education coordinated with the
overall curriculum?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 13: Related Education Activities
The institution’s programs or activities are
characterized by particular content, focus,
Location, mode of delivery, or sponsorship
meet appropriate standards.
Fundamental Elements for
Standard 13: Related Education Activities
• Clearly articulated program goals, objectives, and
expectations of student learning that include student
knowledge, skills, and competency levels;
• Available and effective student support services;
• Credit awarded for experiential learning that is supported
by an evaluation of the level, quality, and quantity of that
learning;
• Non-credit offerings are consistent with institutional
mission and goals
• Academic oversight to assure comparability and
appropriate transferability of non-credit courses if they
are applicable to a degree program.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 13: Related Education Activities
• How significant is the institution’s commitment to
providing programs and services for underprepared students?
• Are the processes for developing, offering, and
evaluating certificate programs coherent and
consistent across the institution?
• What evidence exists that students in distance
learning courses achieve learning goals
comparable to goals achieved by students in
face-to face courses?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 7: Institutional Assessment
The institution has developed and
implemented an assessment process that
evaluates its overall effectiveness in
achieving its mission and goals and its
compliance with accreditation standards.
Fundamental Elements for
Standard 7: Institutional Assessment
• Documented, organized, and sustained
assessment process to evaluate and improve
the total range of programs and services;
achievement of institutional mission, goals, and
plans; and compliance with accreditation
standards;
• Evidence that assessment results are shared
and discussed with appropriate constituents and
used in institutional planning;
• Written institutional strategic plan that reflects
consideration of assessment results.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 7: Institutional Assessment
• How adequate is campus support for institutional
assessment? (Policies, financial support,
professional development and resources)
• How well does the institutional-level of
assessment policies, structures, plans, methods,
results, and use of results demonstrate
coherence among assessment efforts?
• Does the assessment of institutional
effectiveness incorporate results from student
learning outcomes assessments?
Standards at a Glance
Standard 14: Assessment of
Student Learning
Assessment of student learning
demonstrates that, at graduation, or other
appropriate points, the institution’s
students have knowledge, skills, and
competencies consistent with institutional
and appropriate higher education goals.
Fundamental Elements for
Standard 14: Assessment of
Student Learning
• Clearly articulated statement of expected
student learning outcomes at all levels and for
all programs;
• A documented, organized and sustained
assessment process to evaluate and improve
student learning;
• Support and collaboration of faculty and
administrators;
• Evidence that student learning assessment
information is shared and discussed with
appropriate constituents.
Sample Essential Questions
Standard 14: Assessment of
Student Learning
• How effectively do all academic and support
programs document that the curriculum or
program helps students achieve each key
learning outcome?
• Are assessment of student learning of adequate
quality? Are they related to the program’s key
learning outcomes?
• If some programs have not yet implemented
sufficient assessments of their key student
learning outcomes, how adequate are their
plans to do so?