Catawba Valley Community College - Academic And Operational Enhancement Plan

828.327.7000

OVERVIEW AND PROPOSAL FOR THE REVISED CATAWBA VALLEY ACADEMIC AND OPERATIONAL ENHANCEMENT PLAN
The Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness

As Catawba Valley Community College enters a new era of excellence, the need for a functional and efficacious academic and operational enhancement plan becomes the conduit for success. Certainly, any academic and operational enhancement plans incorporated into the operations of the colleges within the North Carolina Community College System must meet the expectations of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; however, basing a college's plan on the requirements of an accrediting commission, as opposed to the needs of the specific college, is not conducive for the nurture of an institutional culture that values data for critical decision-making processes. In short, the academic and operational enhancement process must be easily understood and must be perceived by the college populous as being functional and efficacious. The development of a simple plan that closes the summative/formative loop and can be utilized within all academic and administrative areas is imperative. Since evaluation and assessment plans are intended to spur conversation concerning effectiveness, any plan using common processes and reporting to promote such discussion is desirable. Most importantly, the area data collected during the process should offer a complete snapshot of the area and should clearly identify the area's strengths and weaknesses. With these concerns in mind, the Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness adopted the following general recommendations:

1. All academic and administrative areas of the college should be required to make annual submissions of a standardized seven-item outcome report form which includes operational objectives (administrative) and student/graduate learning outcomes (academic), and of an annual program report that provides an analysis of the data from the area's outcomes form, from the area's Maximum Efficiency Spreadsheet, and from any other viable data source (for example, the NCCCS Annual Critical Success Factors Report and/or data procured from the Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness). The submission of an annual program report with outcomes indicators acts as the foundation for the academic and operational enhancement process. All operational objectives and student/student learning outcomes should be related to the college's strategic plan strategies. Outcomes and objectives, standards for success, measurements to be used to determine success, results, use of results, and projected budget requirements will be submitted on-line, using designated templates. Budgeting requests will remain as part of operational and student/student learning outcome objectives; budgeting requests, strategic planning efforts, and enhancement processes will all be related on the outcomes forms.

2. The college should create a standing committee to review the annual program/area submissions. These reviews should be conducted on a specific scheduled three-year cycle. During the review, the committee will examine basic solvency data, as well as all other operational data, as provided on the annual outcomes reports and associated annual program reviews submitted during the three-year interim cycle. The committee will create a report on its review (a report that will identify program/area strengths and weaknesses) and will present committee commendations and recommendations for the program. The Outcomes Review Committee should be a subcommittee of the Advisory Committee for the Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness (ACOAEE), and the subcommittee should have a rotating membership that reflects the expertise necessary to ensure appropriate review. The Outcomes Review Committee's reports will be submitted to the full ACOAEE for consideration and action. The Outcomes Review Committee should consider the following basic concerns for each program/area, as well as others concerns that the committee deems to be important to assessing operational and academic effectiveness:

A. Total student enrollment (academic programs),
B. Total generated FTE (academic programs),
C. Total operating costs,
D. Operational/student/student learning outcomes and established standards,
E. Measurement of outcomes,
F. Outcome measurement results,
G. Use of results and comparative studies (achievement of objective standards
and trends), and
H. Action plans to address deficiencies.

3. Programs/Areas submitting outcomes forms and APR's that record the program's/area's excellent outcomes development, measurement, and use may be recommended for a President's Quality Commendation. The Outcomes Review Committee will identify such candidates by first identifying programs/area
that:

A. submit all required data by the established deadlines,
B. include on outcomes forms data that exceeds the minimum summative
     necessity for base measurements of success,
C. analyze data accurately and in a consistent manner,
D. implement an action plan for improvement based on the formative
     information,
E. base decision-making processes on data gathered from institutional
     effectiveness efforts, and
F. demonstrate a quality effectiveness cycle which provides appropriate data,
     accurate analysis, appropriate reaction to the analysis, and closure to the evaluation cycle.

The Outcomes Review Committee will then discuss the overall report presentation. Clarity, completeness, ingenuity, and quality will be considered, and any program that the committee feels has shown outstanding initiative and effort will be recommended to the Advisory Committee for the Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness(ACOAEE) for consideration of a President's Quality Commendation. The Outcomes Review Committee will also recommend the level of Commendation and if applicable, other recommended recognitions associated with the commendation (modest release time, part-time funding, implementation funding, funding for professional development activities, etc.); commendations will be identified bronze level, silver level, and gold level (ascending order), depending upon quality standards, as determined by the Outcomes Review Committee. The ACOAEE may approve, approve with amendments, or reject the recommendation. The Council will submit approved recommendations to the President. The President may accept or reject the recommendation and will determine the final level of commendation to be assigned, as well as other recognitions (if any). Any monetary support is dependent upon the college's annual budget. Only one President's Quality Commendation of each level may be awarded during any academic year, and no commendations will be made during academic years when the committee deems that no candidates for outstanding self-evaluation can be identified.

4. Programs/Areas that demonstrate exceptional evaluation efforts and develop (through best-practices research) initiatives that the Outcomes Review Committee recognizes as outstanding may be recommended for recognition as Presidential "Walk-the-Walk" initiatives. "Walk-the-Walk" initiatives represent the highest recognition available to a program's/area's evaluation, assessment, and development efforts. Recommendations for this recognition will be reserved for programs/areas that not only demonstrate exceptional data gathering, analysis, and use of results, but also undertake extensive research in best practices and discovery within the specific field(s) of operation. Using both research in the field and data collected from internal evaluation and assessment, the program/area will have developed a prospectus for a new initiative (program/area operational maintenance projects will not qualify for Walk-the-Walk recognition), a prospectus that addresses specific topics or concerns evidenced in data presented on outcomes form and APR submissions. Such prospectuses may be submitted with annual outcomes forms and APR's. If the Outcome Review Committee determines unanimously that a prospectus merits consideration for Walk-the-Walk initiative recognition, the committee will forward the prospectus (with the committee's recommendation for consideration and for maximum recommended funding) to the Advisory Committee for the Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness (ACOAEE). The ACOAEE may approve, approve with amendments, or reject the recommendation. The ACOAEE will submit approved recommendations to the President. The President may accept or reject the committee's recommendations. Funding for these initiatives, which is dependent upon annual legislative appropriations of the college's annual budget, may cover all costs for the initiative during its first year, or may initiate a funding commitment over a period of time (as might be the case for additional personnel). The initiative will be highly publicized as indication that Catawba Valley Community College does more than "talk the talk" of being the best community college in America; with funding of such initiatives, the college also "walks the walk." Walk-the-Walk recognitions will not be awarded on a regular basis; such funding is reserved for extraordinary initiatives that merit such recognition.

5. Reports from the Outcomes Review Committee may contain recommendations regarding proprietary program's/area's budget/funding, professional development activities for or by the program's/area's personnel, personnel/staffing needs, or any other program/area component that the committee believes will enhance the program's/area's accountability, efficiency, and/or effectiveness.

6. Any program or area for which the Outcomes Review Committee determines major outcomes or solvency concerns exist will be scheduled for a follow-up review during the next year's program/area reviews. Programs or areas found to demonstrate major concerns will have a one-year probationary period to address such concerns. The Outcomes Review Committee will recommend such action to the Advisory Committee for the Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness (ACOAEE), should the review committee find any major concerns. The review committee's report will also contain a recommended response for a program's/area's failure to address adequately major concerns within the probationary period. The ACOAEE may then recommend to the President that the prescription contained within the Outcomes Review Committee report be initiated.

7. The annual outcomes forms, APR's, and Outcomes Review Committee reports will be used during/for SACS/COC reaffirmation reports. Reports may also be used for other accrediting and/or auditing agencies. 8. The Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness and the Center for Teaching Excellence and Research will coordinate efforts to offer IE professional development activities for all faculty and staff. Topics for these professional development opportunities will reflect institutional needs for the development of an institutional effectiveness/data-driven culture of excellence. Professional development opportunities will be created for all representative campus cross-sections. The Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness will assist in the training of program/area representatives in the identification, collection, and analysis of data. During the 2008-2009 academic year, the revised academic and operational enhancement plan will be initiated (including various training sessions on the revised plan), with program/area graduate learning outcomes and operational objectives forms due before Friday, 15 May 2009. The Outcomes Review Committee will conduct its first program/area reviews during the 2009 Summer Semester. The specific programs/areas to be reviewed will be determined by the Advisory Committee for the Office of Accountability, Efficiency, and Effectiveness.

Revised: Updated: 13 April 2011

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