Northwest Commission on College and Universities (NWCCU) Annual Update for WSQA Academic Year 2014-15 Due November 6, 2015 College name: Whatcom Community College Contact person: Ed Harri, Dean for Instruction Contact phone: (360) 383-3222 Contact email: eharri@whatcom.ctc.edu WCC’s time line for its most recent NWCCU visits and reports is as follows: March 2015: Ad hoc self-evaluation report (in response to one recommendation about the external financial audit from year three report) March 2014: Year three report (WCC had four commendations and two recommendations) October 2012: Report and visit regarding WCC’s three recommendations from April 2011 (WCC had one recommendation) February 2012: Year one report (WCC had two recommendations) April 2011: Comprehensive year seven report and visit (WCC had five commendations and three recommendations) Submitted 10-19-2015 As a result of the year three report, in June 2014, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities made the following two recommendations to Whatcom Community College.1 Accreditation recommendations to the College (both recommendations were made in June 2014) 1. While acknowledging that Whatcom Community College has made significant progress in the identification and publication of course, program, and degree learning outcomes, the College must ensure that outcomes exist for all courses. Further, the College must ensure that assessment measures are in place for these outcomes at the 1 Actions taken by the college to address recommendations Improvement results WCC has made substantial advancement in identifying and assessing student learning at the course, program, and college levels. Faculty are talking with one another about assessment and learning outcomes. They are also making clearer connections between their learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessments. WCC continues to work on identifying and assessing college, program, and course level outcomes. For the 2015-16 academic year, WCC will continue offering a series of workshops for faculty that specifically focus on course outcomes At the course level, progress occurred during 2014-15 in creating consistent outcomes for all sections taught by all instructors of a course. 99.7% (368/369) of all courses offered in winter 2015 have course outcomes in the queue to be approved and the goal is to have 100% of the course outcomes approved by the end of the academic year. Almost all full-time faculty and some adjunct faculty are now formally trained in writing course outcomes. During 2014-15, WCC offered an intensive workshop about strategies for active learning and teaching. All participating faculty in the 16 hour long workshop developed a course outcomes report documenting the assessment of a course outcome. This report outlines the course outcome formally assessed, the names of the graded assignments, the teaching and learning strategies used, the results of the assessment, and the next steps (how the results will be used to improve student learning). These reports were reviewed by the faculty outcomes assessment coordinator and director for assessment and institutional research, and feedback was provided to each faculty. As of April 2015, the course outcomes report (assessing one course outcome) is now embedded in and is a requirement of the annual full-time and adjunct faculty professional plan and report, which creates a systematic and ongoing assessment and improvement process. At the program level, during 2014-15, all 14 professional-technical programs revised their program outcomes and curriculum maps and submitted a program outcomes report assessing one program outcome (similar to the course outcomes report). At the college level, WCC refers to its outcomes as core learning abilities (CLAs). WCC’s Most supporting evidence in this report and all accreditation reports are posted on the office of assessment and institutional research’s website (http://www.faculty.whatcom.ctc.edu/InstResearch/index.htm). This information is used widely by faculty, administrators, and staff for decision making campus-wide. 2 Accreditation recommendations to the College (both recommendations were made in June 2014) course, program and degree level (Standards 2.C.2; 4.A.3 and Eligibility Requirement 22; continuation of Recommendation 1 of the fall 2012 Ad-Hoc Peer Evaluation Report). Note: WCC is substantially in compliance with these criteria and will report on its progress in the year seven report in 2019. 2. Whatcom Community College has not had an external financial audit since 2009. The evaluation committee recommends that for each year of operation, the College undergo Actions taken by the college to address recommendations Improvement results CLAs are communication, critical thinking, global consciousness, information literacy, and quantitative literacy. During 2014-15, WCC faculty, through the outcomes assessment committee and in consultation with the curriculum committee, refined professional-technical CLA curriculum maps and posted new CLA (critical thinking) posters in all classrooms and student meeting spaces. In 2014-15, a subcommittee of the outcomes assessment committee reviewed the information literacy (IL) assessment results from the previous year and presented its findings at the February professional development day. In 2014-15, IL and critical thinking (CT) were formally assessed – every discipline/program that was scheduled for program/ discipline improvement process review and that had IL and CT mapped courses submitted an IL or CT report assessing IL or CT. A subcommittee of the outcomes assessment committee will be reviewing the IL and CT assessment results and presenting its findings at the February 2016 professional development day. Faculty selected global consciousness as the 2015-16 CLA and refined its definition and selected its rubric. Finally, the College is using CurricUNET software to track course, program, and college outcomes and assist with managing curriculum revisions. This software provides an effective means for gathering and using data to support an evidence-based and student-centered approach to decision-making and teaching and learning and upholding educational standards. development; rubric design and connecting learning activities and assessments to outcomes; and active teaching and learning methodologies. Faculty are beginning to use their assessment results to improve teaching and learning and to document this process at the course, program, and college levels. In order to achieve standard 2.F.7, the College has met three important milestones. WCC has developed an inaugural set of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, contracted with professionally qualified personnel through the Washington State Auditor’s Office (SAO) to audit the financial statements, and reviewed and considered the results of the financial statement audit in a timely, appropriate and comprehensive manner with the College’s administration and Board. Throughout the development and auditing of the College’s inaugural set of financial statements, key financial staff College financial staff attended a financial statement preparation workshop hosted by the State members have gained Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) in August 2014. Once financial experience and statement templates were produced and provided by the SBCTC, WCC began developing its information in inaugural set of financial statements for fiscal year (FY) 2013-14. These statements were preparing completed in March 2015. Upon conclusion of a third-party audit of the financial statements institutional financial by SAO, the financial statements were published on the College’s public website. 3 Accreditation recommendations to the College (both recommendations were made in June 2014) 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 (Standard 2.F.7 and Eligibility Requirement 19). Actions taken by the college to address recommendations Improvement results The College contracted with professionally qualified personnel through the Washington State Auditor’s Office (SAO) to audit the financial statements, with the official agreement executed in January 2015. SAO initiated its audit fieldwork at WCC on March 18, 2015, and completed the fieldwork in May 2015. statements. The WCC financial team has become well-versed in the appropriate restatement of activities and drafting of localized financial statements. SAO conducted the financial statement audit using generally accepted governmental auditing standards as promulgated in the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s Government Auditing Standards (the “Yellow Book”). Washington state law establishes SAO as the auditor of public accounts. SAO employees are experienced in auditing public universities’ business-type activity financial statements, as they have audited five of Washington’s six public four-year colleges since GASB 34 became effective in 2002 and numerous community and technical colleges over the past18 months. The College’s exit meeting was held on June 16, 2015, and was attended by the SAO audit team; the College’s business and financial staff; and executive management including WCC’s president, vice president for administrative services, and a Board of Trustee’s representative. At the exit meeting, WCC received the auditor’s report, including an unmodified (“clean”) opinion. The College reviewed and considered the results of the financial statement audit in a timely, appropriate and comprehensive manner by the College’s administration and Board. At the Board of Trustees’ regular public board meeting held on February 18, 2015, an overview was provided on financial statement development progress, audit process, and timeline. Upon completion of the third-party audit of the College’s financial statements by SAO, a review was conducted by WCC financial managers with WCC’s Board of Trustees and college administrators. As required by auditing standards, the SAO audit team presented its report to college management and the governing Board. This took place at the audit exit meeting held on June 16, 2015, in the presence of the college president, a Board member, the College’s financial managers and key members of the administration. The audit report was then distributed to the Board of Trustees. Further, information from the exit meeting was shared with the Board members during the July 8, 2015, Board meeting for review, consideration, and discussion of the audit results. 4 Administration and board members have gained experience in analyzing and interpreting college financial statements. Audited college financial statements are now posted publicly. With improvements in process and training, the College expects to begin preparation of the fiscal year 2014-15 financial statements in November 2015 and begin contract for audit services with SAO in February 2016.