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.