What is Accreditation

Los Angeles Harbor College will be reaccredited in the Spring of 2006

The self-study committee was identified in Spring 2004

General Information on Accreditation

Accreditation is a system of voluntary, non-governmental self regulation and peer review unique to American educational institutions.   It is a system of self-evaluation referred to as an institutional self-study evaluating itself in accordance with standards of good practice regarding goals and objectives.  It is a process by which accreditors provide students, the public, and each other with assurances of institutional integrity, quality, and effectiveness. Its purpose is to encourage planning for improvement in quality and effectiveness. Accreditation requires a comprehensive self-study every six years and a mandatory midterm report in the third year.

Six Regions of Accreditation in the United States

• 1. Middle States
• 2. New England
• 3. North Central
• 4. Northwest
• 5. Southern
• 6. Western Association of Schools and Colleges

ACCJC/WASC

The Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges is one of the two commissions of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.  ACCJC accredits two year post secondary education programs.  The service area includes California, Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Commonwealth of North Marianas, Republic of Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, and Republic of Palau.

An Introduction to the New Accreditation Standards

ACCJC/WASC An Overview of the New Standards

The primary purpose of an ACCJC-accredited institution is to foster learning in its students

Focus  Learning • Accountability/Assessment • Learning Outcomes • Continuous Program Improvement

Characteristics of an Effective Institution

• 1. An effective institution ensures that its resources and processes support student learning, continuously assesses learning,  and pursues institutional excellence and improvement.
• 2. An effective institution maintains an ongoing, self-reflective dialog about its quality and improvement.
• ACCA Reports, April, 2003

 4 Standards:

1. Institutional Mission & Effectiveness - The institution demonstrates strong commitment to a mission that emphasizes   achievement of student learning and to communicating the mission internally and externally. The institution uses   analyses of quantitative and qualitative data and analysis in an ongoing and systematic cycle of evaluation, integrated   planning, implementation, and re-evaluation to verify and improve the effectiveness by which the mission is accomplished.
2. Student Learning Programs & Services - The institution offers high-quality instructional programs, student support services,  and library and learning support services that facilitate and demonstrate the achievement of stated learning out  comes, enhances student understanding and appreciation of diversity, and encourages personal and civic responsibility as well as intellectual, aesthetic, and personal development for all its students.
3. Resources - The institution effectively uses its human, physical, technology, and financial resources to achieve its broad  educational purposes, including stated learning outcomes, and to improve institutional effectiveness.
4. Leadership & Governance - The institution recognizes and utilizes the contributions of leadership throughout the    organization for continuous improvement of the institution. Governance roles are designed to facilitate decisions that   support student learning programs and services and improve institutional effectiveness, while acknowledging the   designated responsibilities of the governing board and the chief administrator.

6 Themes:

• Institutional Commitments to providing high quality education congruent with institutional mission, to focusing on  student learning, and to periodic reflection on its mission.
• Evaluation, Planning & Improvement in an ongoing and systematic cycle that includes evaluation, goal setting,    resource distribution, implementation, and reevaluation.
• Student Learning Outcomes, SLO’s as the conscious and robust demonstration of the effectiveness of institutional   efforts to produce and support student learning outcomes by developing student learning outcomes at the course,  program and degree level.
• Organization as demonstrated in having adequate staff, resources and organizational structure (communication and   decision making structures) to identify and make public learning outcomes, and to make improvements;
• Dialogue as a means to ongoing participation in institutional self-reflection based on reliable information about the   college’s programs and services and evidence on how well the institution is meeting student needs;
• Institutional Integrity demonstrated concern with honesty, truthfulness, and the manner it which it represents itself to all   stakeholders, internal and external.

  It is crucial for an institution to ask important questions about itself and to do some good thinking about its own performance. The current standards are designed to facilitate that dialog. Barbara Beno, Executive Director, April, 2003.

  The standards were purposefully organized so that they always point back to instruction – even in areas such as resources and budget. Student Learning Programs & Services is the flagship of the new standards. Jack Hernandez, Bakersfield College, 2003.

  Do not simply organize around the same old silos.  Find an organizational structure that works for your campus and that targets the thematic integration. It is also crucial to provide the evidence, to not just make assertions.         Darlene Pacheco, Associate Director, 2003.

An Introduction to Student Learning Outcomes (SLO’s)

I. What are measurable student outcomes?

• Determining if intended learning has occurred either in acquisition of skills, mastery of concepts, or growth in life      perspective.
• SLO’s require objectives that are clearly defined in measurable terms.
• Outcomes are results-oriented.

II. SLO’s are defined at three levels:

• Course Level
• Program Level
• College Level

III. Providing Evidence of Student Learning – Assessment

• Learning outcomes are direct measures of learning.
• Indirect measures – graduation rates, course completion, grades – all provide institutional accomplishment of the mission.

IV. The ultimate goal is improvement of the learning process.

• Just gathering information is not enough.
• The instructor must use the assessment information to improve the                  teaching/learning process.
• Also, called Continuous Quality Management or Total Quality Management

V. Categories of Student Learning Outcomes

• What faculty intend students to know (cognitive),
• Think or believe (affective)
• Or be able to do (behavioral) when the student has completed the course, field of study, or degree (general education).

VI. Getting Started?

• What must the student know in the “real world” and how does this course, program or degree address those         skills?
• How will the outcomes be demonstrated in the course or program?
• What skills and concepts need to be learned?

VII. Writing Student Learning Outcomes - SLO’s clearly state, upon completion of a course/program/degree:

• What the student can do?
• Use active verbs
• Include a measurable expectation
• Share the outcomes with your students
• Modify as you learn from experience

VIII. Tools for Measuring Learning

• Course embedded assessment
• Portfolios
• Workplace performance
• Rating sheets - Rubrics
• Capstone experience
• Classroom assessment techniques