Western Association of Schools and Colleges
Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities
Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities
Starting in fall 2008, several new and revised forms relating to visits were implemented.
Please review the following list to ascertain which of these applies to your upcoming spring 2009 visit.
In use for five years, this form has been revised and updated. As has been our practice, teams use this form to guide their evaluation of an institution's capacity to assess student and organizational learning (on CPR visits) and to evaluate overall educational effectiveness (on EER visits). Special Visit teams may also use the framework if assessment and EE are within the scope of its visit.
NEW REQUIREMENT: EER teams are asked to submit to the WASC staff their findings about the institution's placement on the framework. At the end of the visit, EER teams should note on a copy of the framework document where the institution falls in each category/line. The Assistant Chair should send this annotated document to the assigned WASC director. This document is considered to be part of the Confidential Team Recommendation. The staff will analyze all the framework documents submitted for visits to learn more about how institutions are addressing educational effectiveness and what their challenges are, and to better understand how WASC might support teams in making evaluations of educational effectiveness.
In response to requests from teams, this document provides guidance to teams as they determine their Confidential Team Recommendation to the Commission. The matrix shows the actions that the Commission may take, defines them, and explains the circumstances under which they are typically applied. This document is used in conjunction with the Confidential Team Recommendation form and the detailed explanation of Commission Decisions on Institutions, which are sent to all teams and are available below.
WASC is required to visit and evaluate off-campus sites and to review and evaluate distance education programs.
NEW REQUIREMENT: To better document team evaluations of OCDE, new forms have been created that help the team capture information and findings about the sites or distance education programs. Completed forms should be attached to the report, and text added to the report, as appropriate.
NEW REQUIREMENT: Teams that visit institutions seeking Candidacy or Initial Accreditation are required to conduct a compliance audit, which ensures that institutions have the basic infrastructure of systems, policies, procedures, and practices required to function as an accredited institution under the Standards. This audit will ordinarily be conducted at the time of the CPR visit, with follow-up at the EER visit. The Commission may also ask for such an audit if an institution is on sanction. The team completes and attaches the Compliance Audit form to the team report, and institutions are expected to address any deficiencies at the time of the next report and visit. Affected institutions have been informed about this new requirement and are preparing relevant portfolios for team review.
Rubrics related to assessment were piloted by teams last year and have been finalized for use by teams this year as new tool. These rubrics are designed to provide teams with guidance in evaluating the quality and effectiveness of institutions' work in four key areas relating to the assessment of student learning:
Each rubric has five criteria and four levels of effectiveness - initial, emerging, developed, and highly developed. The rubrics have descriptive language in each cell (i.e., for each level and criteria), which may be used in describing the level of the institution's effectiveness in the team report. The instructions for each rubric include questions that the team may ask on the visit to obtain the information needed to "place" the institution on the rubric.
This new rubric is a pilot tool for teams that are evaluating an institution's efforts to assess undergraduate general education. Like the other assessment rubrics, it has five criteria and four levels of effectiveness, with instructions to assist the team in getting information needed to evaluate the assessment of GE. We will be seeking feedback from teams on the usefulness of this rubric and will revise it accordingly. Institutions may find that this rubric is useful in evaluating and improving their own efforts to assess GE.
The report formats for all kinds of visits have been revised and updated to reflect current practice and to make them more useful for teams. All three forms are attached. We encourage teams, in particular the Assistant Chair, to type directly into the applicable Word document, replacing the instructions in the text with the team's text. Experienced Assistant Chairs have found that this practice saves time, ensures that the team's report follows the required organization and headings, and reminds the team about key questions that it should address in each section.
Changes in the CFRs and Institutional Review Process were adopted by the Commission in 2008. Although CFR changes were effective on July 1, 2008, institutions are not required to document that they meet new requirements during visits conducted this year. Likewise, the changes in the review process will be phased in, starting in Fall 2009. Charts explaining the changes are attached, to assist institutions and teams in understanding the new requirements. All institutions have been sent a letter indicating how the new requirements will affect their reviews.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Chair and Eval Logistics Guide.pdf | 1.43 MB |
| Spring 2009 Resource Book.pdf | 814.71 KB |
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