Northwest Commission on College and Universities (NWCCU) Annual Update for WSQA Academic Year 2014-2015 Due November 6, 2015 College Name: Spokane Falls Community College Contact Person: Dr. James E. Minkler, Vice President of Learning Contact Phone: (509) 533-3764 Contact email: jim.minkler@sfcc.spokane.edu Accreditation recommendations to the College and year of recommendation Actions taken by the college to address recommendations Improvement results The accreditation documents can be viewed at: http://www.spokanefalls.edu/College/Accreditation.aspx Spokane Falls Community College’s regional accreditation was reaffirmed in January 2014 after a Year Seven Comprehensive site visit in October 2013. This visit resulted in five recommendations: RECOMMENDATION 1 The evaluation committee recommends that the College articulate an acceptable threshold of mission fulfillment and ensure the effective measurement of core themes and that the core themes “individually manifest” and “collectively encompass” the College’s mission statement. Further the core theme objectives and verifiable indicators should be rigorous and meaningful, should align to The College has restructured its Accreditation Steering Committee into the Institutional Effectiveness Team (IE Team). This team is now charged with assisting the Core Theme teams in verifying that the indicators are rigorous and meaningful, align to evaluate the accomplishment of core themes, and inform the evaluation of programs and services for each core theme objective. Both the Core Theme Teams and the IE Team have developed charges to support these efforts. 1 A Core Theme Team Charge and Institutional Effectiveness Team Charge were developed to assist members in understanding roles and support functions. The NWCCU mid-cycle rubric was presented to each core theme team for selfreview. One area identified as needing improvement was the documentation and application of measures for statistical significance. Those are now being applied where appropriate. evaluate the accomplishment of core themes, and should holistically inform the evaluation of programs and services for each core theme objective (Standards 1.A.2, 1.B.2; 3.B.3; 4.A, and 4.B). Thresholds are being identified which balance the accreditation standard of establishing a minimum for mission fulfillment with that which the College should and can achieve yet are still aspirational. A reporting template was developed to assist Core Theme teams. RECOMMENDATION 2 The evaluation committee recommends that the College revise its assessment of faculty evaluation and professional development to assure these processes provide ongoing systematic collection and analysis of meaningful, assessable, and verifiable data—quantitative and/or qualitative, as appropriate to its indicators of achievement—as the basis for evaluating the accomplishments of its core theme objectives (Standards 1.B.2, 3.B.3; 4.A.1, and 4.B.1). The College has incorporated the recommendation into the work of Core Theme 1—Excellent Instruction, Objective 2--Faculty professional development inform the improvement of teaching and learning, Indicator 1--Professional development activities are reflected in classroom instruction and/or demonstration of how they benefit student learning. A subgroup of Core Theme 1 developed recommendations and processes to support the collection and analysis of meaningful and verifiable data. The subgroup is proposing a common instrument be applied to selected faculty development activities. The subgroup recommends to the Core Theme I committee that a common expectation of all funding be an agreement by all participants funded by these activities. The subgroup would accept responsibility to coordinate, facilitate and document participation, joined by others associated with faculty development. The subgroup would develop a spreadsheet to organize and collect documentation. 2 The goal of this proposal is to assure sharing of the benefits of funded faculty development activities with others. The emphasis is on the commitment to and participation in that sharing rather than the actual documentation. RECOMMENDATION 3 The evaluation committee recommends that for each year of operation, the College undergo an external financial audit and that the results from such audits, including findings and management letter recommendations, be considered in a timely, appropriate and comprehensive manner by the Board of Trustees (Eligibility Requirement 19 and Standard 2.F.7). Since receiving Recommendation 3, the College has revised its financial statements to meet generally accepted accounting principles and contracted with the State Auditor’s Office (SAO) to conduct independent financial audits each year of operation. The first audit was completed July of 2015. In the NWCCU letter dated February 10th, 2015, the Commission determined that SFCC’s Fall 2014 Ad Hoc Report addressing the recommendation “still does meet the criteria for accreditation.” The college has responded and in its Ad Hoc Report dated October 15, 2015 it offers evidence that Eligibility Standard 19 and Standard 2.F.7 have now been met having had a comprehensive external audit, and that the college is now in full compliance. A response to this Ad Hoc Report has not been received as of the date of this annual report. In the fall of 2014 the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Community Colleges of Spokane (CCS) contracted with Stafford & Associates, a local research firm, to solicit input, opinions and expertise from CCS students, faculty and staff regarding information technologies. Individual executive interviews were conducted. Online surveys were made available to all students and employees. Town hall meetings were conducted in Colville, Pullman, on each of the campuses and at the district offices. Two focus groups were held representing student government from each campus. Two focus groups solicited input from selected faculty members from throughout the district. A focus group was dedicated to members of the IT Governance Advisory Council and two focus groups were held representing IT staff members from throughout the district. Some issues identified are admittedly very tactical in nature but some are clearly strategic and paint a new vision. For tactical issues it’s usually a function of funding or at least prioritization. No surprise are the requests for increased wireless access, extended hours of support from the Service Support Desk and earlier completion of student lab configurations – at minimum before the term begins. Early trends in strategic issues outline the need for new thinking about how technologies are funded, how the funds are allocated and how some technology organizations are organized or related. The completed CCS IT Plan will soon be distributed to CCS and community stakeholders and will be included in a separate report for NWCCU in Fall of 2016. RECOMMENDATION 4 The evaluation committee recommends that the institution develop, implement, and regularly review a technology update and replacement plan to ensure its technology infrastructure is adequate to support its operations, programs, and services (Standard 2.G.8). 3 RECOMMENDATION 5 The evaluation committee recommends that the College move aggressively to revise and refine its system of direct and authentic assessment that appraises student accomplishment of general education outcomes from which are derived meaningful results that provide clear direction for curricular and instructional improvement (Standard 4.A.3, 4.A.6, 4.B.1, and 4.B.2). Significant progress has been made on developing a robust process for assessing general education learning outcomes. The Institutional Teaching and Learning Improvement Coordinating Committee (ITALIC) has lead the efforts. In 2014-15, several key tasks were completed: All distribution courses mapped to at least one of five general education outcomes Developed five general education outcome rubrics Faculty training/norming on rubric use Faculty training on signature assignment development Pilot assessment of two outcomes-Communication and Diverse Perspectives Analysis of data (descriptive statistics and correlational statistics) 4 ITALIC Presented first assessment results (Communication and Diverse Perspectives Learning Outcomes) to faculty. This year will focus on improvement recommendations for those outcomes. Interpretation of the results is confounded by concerns about the rubrics which were identified through the analysis. In 2015-16, the general education outcomes for quantitative literacy, Information literacy, and critical thinking will be assessed. An all faculty interdisciplinary discussion of the rubrics and input session based on improving the rubrics was held on October 27th, 2015, with over 80 participants.