Transcript Accreditation Visit: OMG! What if they ask me a question?? Accreditation Tri-Chairs: • Kelly Irwin • Ginni May • Don Palm Fall 2015

Accreditation Visit:
OMG! What if they ask me a question??
Accreditation Tri-Chairs:
•
Kelly Irwin
•
Ginni May
•
Don Palm
Fall 2015
OMG!
What if they ask me a question??
2
Questions that will be answered today:






What is accreditation?
What is an
accreditation visit?
Who will be on the
team?
How will the visit
affect my work?
What are they looking
for?
What might they ask
us?
What is Accreditation?
Accreditation provides the recognition that
education provided by the college meets
acceptable levels of quality. Being accredited
tells the public and our students that we
meet the standards needed for our
graduates to gain admission to other
reputable institutions of higher learning or
to achieve credentials for professional
practice. It allows SCC to be eligible to
offer federal financial aid to students.
ACCJC Accreditation Requirements
Eligibility Requirements
 Standards
 Policies

Recommendations can result from
accreditation reports or visits.
Key theme:
Continuous Quality Improvement—how
are we using information (data in many
forms) to review our processes and
improve the college (instruction, student
services, and the educational environment)?
6
ACCJC Accreditation Standards
Standard I: Institutional Mission and
Effectiveness
Standard II: Student Learning Programs
and Services
Standard III: Resources
Standard IV: Leadership and Governance
7
Standard I: Institutional Mission and
Effectiveness

Mission
◦ Defines our educational purposes, student populations, etc. (Who
are we and what do we do?)

Improving Institutional Effectiveness
◦ Using data to plan for improvement
Standard II: Student Learning
Programs and Services

Instructional Programs
◦ Degrees, certificates, SLOs, etc.

Student Support Services
◦ Counseling, A&R, FA, Orientation, Career
services, DSPS, EOPS, etc.

Library and Learning Support Services
◦ Library, tutoring, computer labs, information
competency, etc.
9
Standard III: Resources

Human Resources
◦ Hiring process and policies, determining needed hires,
qualifications of personnel, evaluation of personnel, etc.

Physical Resources
◦ Sufficient facilities, evaluation of facilities needs, etc.

Technology Resources
◦ Sufficient IT resources, evaluation of IT resource needs,
planning for upgrades, DE resources, etc.

Financial Resources
◦ Fiscal stability, financial planning, accurate information, etc.
Standard IV: Leadership and
Governance

Decision-making Roles and Processes
◦ Dialogue about college goals, participation in decisionmaking, governance roles, evaluation of processes, etc.

Board and Administrative Organization
◦ Board of Trustees policies and roles, BoT ethics and
responsibilities, etc.
What is an accreditation visit?

A team of 8 to 13 peer evaluators visit
the college for about 4 days to confirm
that the college meets the ERs, Standards,
and Commission Policies.

The visit occurs after the team has read
the college’s Self Evaluation Report.
12
The Accreditation Visit
Before the visit
 During the visit
 After the visit

Before the Accreditation Visit
The College:
 Preparation begins two years before visit
 Self evaluation report is sent to the team in advance
 Visit is about a week long
 Evidence is critical
The visiting team:
 Starts a more than a month before the visit
 Reads the self-evaluation carefully
 Spends a lot of time on the website
 Identifies areas of concern and draft recommendations
before they come to the college (they will check on
these before making conclusions).
During the Accreditation Visit






Typically, each team member focuses on one or two
sections of the standards
They will have a list of whom they want to visit.
They will also talk to people who ask to talk with
them.
They will look at many kinds of evidence; some
evidence will be provided on paper, some as
electronic copies.
They will be thorough and look at more than just
examples of documents, plans, etc.
They may visit meetings and classes (face to face
and/or DE).
After the Accreditation Visit
The team will recommend and then the
Commission will take action to do one of the
following:
 Reaffirm accreditation
 Reaffirm accreditation with Follow-up report
 Reaffirm accreditation, Follow-up report & visit
 Defer a decision on reaffirmation of accreditation
 Issue Warning
 Impose Probation
 Show Cause
 Terminate Accreditation
Reasons for sanction:
The most common problems for the colleges on sanction as
of Jan 2013 are:
◦ Board roles and responsibilities (17 colleges),
◦ Planning using assessment results (16)
◦ Financial management (13).
The ACCJC Spring 2013 newsletter also notes that
deficiencies in the following areas are “emerging reasons for
sanction” including:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Student Learning Outcomes (9 colleges)
Student Services (7)
Employee Evaluation (7)
Use of Research for Improvement (7)
Mission (7)
Miscellaneous HR deficiencies (8)
Distance Education (5)
Who will be on the team?



The Chair is usually a
college president or
district chancellor.
The team assistant is
someone chosen by the
Chair to assist the Chair
and the team.
The team members
consist of administrators,
faculty, board members,
and occasionally a
classified college
employee – all from
various colleges in the
ACCJC regional area.
18
How will the visit affect my work?

Your work should
carry on as usual.

Team members may
come to your work
area and ask you
questions.

Just another day…
19
What are they looking for?
Evidence and verification that the college
does what they say they do,
 Evidence that the college follows their
policies and processes,
 Evidence that the college provides quality
education and student services,
 Evidence that the college meets ERs,
Standards, and Commission Policies.

20
What is evidence?
Institutional databases, research reports and
fact books
 Faculty and student handbooks
 Catalogues
 Policy statements
 Program review documents
 Planning documents
 Minutes
 Syllabi, course outlines, rubrics and other
class documents
 Etc.

What might they ask us?
…and do we have to provide them with the
answer?

The team can ask for anything. If you are unsure
of how to respond, let the team member know
this, and let them know that you will contact
your supervisor, and get back to them ASAP.
22
College reports to ACCJC
Midterm Report
 Annual Report
 Annual Fiscal Report
 SLO Report
 Substantive Change Proposals
 Self-evaluation Report (This is the big
one)

Key points
Accreditation requirements:
◦ Must be met at all times.
◦ Require the college to demonstrate
“organizational effectiveness and educational
quality”.
◦ Require “systematic assessments” that allow
the college to improve.
◦ Apply to every college process, action, service
and program.
Emerging Emphases
Student Achievement measures
 Use of assessment results in integrated
planning
 Making information available to the public

Measures of student achievement and
assessment of learning outcomes:
 College completion
 “Quality of graduates”
 Assessment of course SLOs
 “Institutionally-set standards” – course success,
Fall to Fall persistence, numbers of degrees and
certificates, and number of transfers.
Use of assessment results in
integrated planning:

Measures of student achievement and
SLO assessment need to have a clear
connection to planning processes.
27
Making information available to
the public:
This includes making the information
available ‘one click away’ from the college
homepage.
 This is aligned with new emphases from
the CCCCO and the Federal Government.

Ensuring quality regardless of
modality or location:
Student outcomes,
student success,
services available, etc.
should be equivalent
for all locations or
modalities of a
course or program.
 Careful attention to
distance education.

Questions?
30
References

http://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/i
ndex.html