2001 ACCJC-WASC Visiting Team Recommendations

The 2001 Accreditation Team Evaluation Report identified four recommendations to assist Ohlone College to improve our internal environment, to make our process more efficient and effective, and to better serve our educational mission (November 2001, Page 11). The 2001 Commission Action Letter identified two of the recommendations for focused review in the Midterm Report (2004) and requested an update on the other two recommendations. The Progress Report (2005) we were asked to only address the first two recommendations.

Two Major Recommendations

1. Recognizing that college needs and aspirations will likely exceed available resources, the team recommends that the board and administration, in consultation with college governance, define and clearly communicate a limited number of goals derived from the mission and stated as measurable outcomes. These goals should be used

(1) to prioritize strategic plan initiatives and

(2) to guide resource allocations for the greatest possible impact on student learning and the community.

2 The team recommends that the college develop performance outcome measures for program strategic plan goals and strategies to assess progress, ensure positive impact on student learning, and provide objective feedback to determine if initiatives should be continued, expanded, revised, or abandoned. Such outcomes should focus on clear results, particularly those linked to student learning and achievement, rather than process steps that have been completed.

Two Secondary Recommendations

3. The team recommends the college develop and implement an effective outcome-based methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of online and media-supported courses including the related student and academic support services for these courses. Such systems should include student feedback and evaluation of the faculty responsible for the course.

4. The team recommends the college implement systems to ensure broad understanding of planning and decision-making processes. Such systems should be designed to assist the college community in understanding decisions regarding such items as institutional initiatives and prioritization of new staff positions, financial allocations and faculty resources.

Theme: Evaluation, Planning and Improvement

After reading the description and the summary questions below, add “comments” that address one or more of the summary questions.

The standards require ongoing institutional evaluation and improvement to help serve students better. Evaluation focuses on student achievement, student learning, and the effectiveness of processes, policies, and organization. Improvement is achieved through an ongoing and systematic cycle of evaluation, integrated planning, implementation, and re-evaluation. The planning cycle begins with evaluation of student needs and college programs and services. This evaluation in turn informs college decisions about where it needs to improve, and the college identifies improvement goals campus-wide. Resources are distributed in order to implement these goals. When resources are insufficient to support improvement goals, the college adjusts its resource decisions to reflect its priorities or seeks other means of supplying resources to meet its goals. Once improvement plans have been fully implemented, evaluation of how well the goals have been met ensues. Thus, the planning cycle is comprised of evaluation, goal setting, resource distribution, implementation, and reevaluation.

Summary Questions:

1. What is our cycle of planning and evaluation?
2. Do we begin our planning cycle begins with evaluation of student needs and college programs and services?
3. Does this evaluation direct college decisions about where we needs to improve, and do we identify improvement goals campus-wide?
4. Are resources are distributed in order to implement these goals?
5. If resources are insufficient, do we adjust resource decisions to reflect our priorities or seeks other means of supplying resources to meet goals?
6. Once improvement plans have been fully implemented, do we evaluate of how well the goals have been met ensues?

Theme: Institutional Commitments

After reading the description below, add “comments” that identify specific activities at the college that indicate we demonstrate institutional commitment expectations. Post a separate “comment” for each activity identified.

The standards ask institutions to make a commitment in action to providing high quality education congruent with institutional mission. The first expression of this is in Standard I, which calls for an institutional mission statement that reflects the intended student population and the institution’s commitment to student learning.

Throughout the standards, the commission asks that institutions insure the consistency between mission and institution goals and plans and insure that the mission is more that a statement of intention — that it guides institutional action.

The standards also ask that an institution commit to supporting student learning as its primary mission. The number of references to student learning outcomes throughout the standards are designed to guide this institutional commitment to student learning.

The standards’ requirement that the entire institution participate in reviewing institutional performance and developing plans for improvement of student learning outcomes is intended to help the institution sustain its commitment to student learning.

Finally, the requirement that an institution regularly review its mission statement asks that the institution periodically reflect on its mission statement, adapt it as needed, and renew commitment to achieving the mission.

Summary points of this theme:

The institution demonstrates its commitment to

• High quality education congruent with mission
• Student learning as the primary mission
• Mission being more than statement of intention; it guides institutional action
• Entire institution participating in reviewing performance and developing improvement plans
• Regularly review and reflect on mission, adapt as needed, and renew commitments

Proposed Accreditation Self-Study Teams

Accreditation Self Study Steering Committee: College Council

Self-Study Teams

Standard I: Institutional Mission and Effectiveness

1. A. Mission
2. B. Improving Institutional Effectiveness

Standard II: Student Learning Programs and Services

3. A. Instructional Programs
4. B. Student Support Services
5. C. Library and Learning Support Services

Standard III: Resources

6. A. Human Resources
7. B. Physical Resources
8. C. Technology Resources
9. D. Financial Resources

Standard IV: Leadership and Governance

10. A. Decision-Making Roles and Processes
11. B. Board and Administrative Organization

Other Teams

12. Response to Prior Visiting Team Recommendations
13. Substantive Change Proposal: NCHST
14. Distance Learning
15. Self Study Document Writing Team

2001 ACCJC-WASC Visiting Team Recommendations

The 2001 Accreditation Team Evaluation Report identified four recommendations to assist Ohlone College to improve our internal environment, to make our process more efficient and effective, and to better serve our educational mission (November 2001, Page 11). The 2001 Commission Action Letter identified two of the recommendations for focused review in the Midterm Report (2004) and requested an update on the other two recommendations. The Progress Report (2005) we were asked to only address the first two recommendations.

Two Major Recommendations

1. Recognizing that college needs and aspirations will likely exceed available resources, the team recommends that the board and administration, in consultation with college governance, define and clearly communicate a limited number of goals derived from the mission and stated as measurable outcomes. These goals should be used (1) to prioritize strategic plan initiatives and (2) to guide resource allocations for the greatest possible impact on student learning and the community.

2 The team recommends that the college develop performance outcome measures for program strategic plan goals and strategies to assess progress, ensure positive impact on student learning, and provide objective feedback to determine if initiatives should be continued, expanded, revised, or abandoned. Such outcomes should focus on clear results, particularly those linked to student learning and achievement, rather than process steps that have been completed.

Two Secondary Recommendations

3. The team recommends the college develop and implement an effective outcome-based methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of online and media-supported courses including the related student and academic support services for these courses. Such systems should include student feedback and evaluation of the faculty responsible for the course.

4. The team recommends the college implement systems to ensure broad understanding of planning and decision-making processes. Such systems should be designed to assist the college community in understanding decisions regarding such items as institutional initiatives and prioritization of new staff positions, financial allocations and faculty resources.

Self-Study Themes and Accreditation Standards

Self-Study Themes

Dialogue
Institutional Commitments
Evaluation, Planning, and Improvement
Student Learning Outcomes
Organization
Institutional Integrity

Accreditation Standards

Standard I: Institutional Mission and Effectiveness
A. Mission
B. Improving Institutional Effectiveness

Standard II: Student Learning Programs and Services
A. Instructional Programs
B. Student Support Services
C. Library and Learning Support Services

Standard III: Resources
A. Human Resources
B. Physical Resources
C. Technology Resources
D. Financial Resources

Standard IV: Leadership and Governance
A. Decision-Making Roles and Processes
B. Board and Administrative Organization

Theme: Dialogue

After reading the description below, add “comments” that identify specific activities at the college that indicate we engage in ongoing, self-reflective dialogue that is central to our institutional processes. Post a separate “comment” for each activity identified.

As the Commission was developing the new standards, it became evident that if an institution is to ensure that its resources and processes support student learning and its continuous assessment, as well as the pursuit of institutional excellence and improvement, an “ongoing, self-reflective dialogue” must become central to institutional processes. Accordingly, the subtitle of the Introduction to the Accreditation Standards is “Shaping the Dialogue.” The standards are designed to facilitate college engagement in inclusive, informed, and intentional dialogue about institutional quality and improvement. The dialogue should purposefully guide institutional change. All members of the college community should participate in this reflection and exchange about student achievement, student learning, and the effectiveness of its processes, policies, and organization. For the dialogue to have its intended effect, it should be based on reliable information about the college’s programs and services and evidence on how well the institution is meeting student needs. Information should be quantitative and qualitative, responsive to a clear inquiry, meaningfully interpreted, and broadly communicated. The institutional dialogue should result in ongoing self-reflection and conscious improvement.

Theme: Evaluation, Planning and Improvement

After reading the description below, add “comments” that identify specific activities at the college that indicate we addressing the theme of evaluation, planning and improvement. Post a separate “comment” for each activity identified.

The standards require ongoing institutional evaluation and improvement to help serve students better. Evaluation focuses on student achievement, student learning, and the effectiveness of processes, policies, and organization. Improvement is achieved through an ongoing and systematic cycle of evaluation, integrated planning, implementation, and re-evaluation. The planning cycle begins with evaluation of student needs and college programs and services. This evaluation in turn informs college decisions about where it needs to improve, and the college identifies improvement goals campus-wide. Resources are distributed in order to implement these goals. When resources are insufficient to support improvement goals, the college adjusts its resource decisions to reflect its priorities or seeks other means of supplying resources to meet its goals. Once improvement plans have been fully implemented, evaluation of how well the goals have been met ensues. Thus, the planning cycle is comprised of evaluation, goal setting, resource distribution, implementation, and reevaluation.

Theme: Student Learning Outcomes

After reading the description below, add “comments” that identify specific activities at the college that indicate we are addressing the theme of student learning outcomes. Post a separate “comment” for each activity identified.

The development of Student Learning Outcomes is one of the key themes in these standards. The theme has to do with the institution consciously and robustly demonstrating the effectiveness of its efforts to produce and support student learning by developing student learning outcomes at the course, program, and degree level. This demonstration of effectiveness requires that learning outcomes be measured and assessed to determine how well learning is occurring so that changes to improve learning and teaching can be made. It requires that faculty engage in discussions of ways to deliver instruction to maximize student learning. It requires that those providing student support services develop student learning outcomes and evaluate the quality of their policies, processes, and procedures for providing students access and movement through the institution. And it requires that student learning outcomes be at the center of the institution’s key processes and allocation of resources. Ultimately, this theme requires that an institution engage in self-analysis leading to improvement of all that it does regarding learning and teaching.

Theme: Organization

After reading the description below, add “comments” that identify specific characteristics or activities at the college that indicate our organizational structure effectively addresses this theme.. Post a separate “comment” for each characteristic or activity identified.

The Standards require colleges to have inclusive, informed and intentional efforts to define student learning, provide programs to support that learning, and to evaluate how well learning is occurring. This requirement means that the institution must have in place the organizational means to identify and make public the learning outcomes, to evaluate the effectiveness of programs in producing those outcomes, and to make improvements. This requirement for adequate staff, resources and organizational structure (communication and decision making structures) is not new to accreditation standards, but the new expectation is that these be oriented to produce and support student learning. Consequently, they will be evaluated in part by how well they support learning.

Theme: Institutional Integrity

After reading the description below, add “comments” that identify specific activities at the college that indicate we are demonstrating Institutional Integrity. Post a seperate "comment" for each activity identified.

This theme deals with the institution’s demonstrated concern with honesty, truthfulness, and the manner it which it represents itself to all stakeholders, internal and external. This theme speaks to the intentions of an institution as well as to how it carries them out. It prompts institutional assessment of the integrity of its policies, practices, and procedures and to how it treats students, employees, and its publics. It asks that the institution concern itself with the clarity, understandability, accessibility, and appropriateness of its publications; that its faculty provide for open inquiry in their classes as well as student grades that reflect an honest appraisal of student performance against faculty standards. It has an expectation of academic honesty on the part of students. It requires that the institution demonstrate regard for issues of equity and diversity. It encourages the institution to look at its hiring and employment practices as well as to its relationship with the Commission and other external agencies. Finally, it expects that an institution be self-reflective and honest with itself in all its operations.