Culture of Accreditation

DETC Fall WorkshopNashville, TN10/18/2011

Dr. Leslie GargiuloVP, Education and Product Development

Ashworth College

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Table of Contents

Part I• System Context - Tripartite– Fed, Finance, Accreditation

• AccreditationPart II• Culture of Accreditation Initiative – Case

Study • What’s at stake

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Part I: System Context

The US Accreditation “System”

• Regional accreditors– All require liberal arts foundation, academically oriented– Oldest, strongest reputation– Review degree-granting nonprofit and for-profit institutions within their regions,

both two-year and four-year schools.

• National accreditors– Colleges with and without liberal arts foundation– Non-degree, career and high schools

• The United States Military uses DETC to accredit some of its programs. A notable example is the Army Correspondence Course Program

• Specialized accreditors– Mostly programs, not colleges

• State licensure

• All accreditors voluntary, membership-controlled• Students can receive Federal financial aid only if they attend a college accredited

by a Federally-recognized accreditor.

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System Context (con’t)

1965 Higher Education Act (HEA)• Title IV funds go only to colleges accredited by

Federally recognized accreditor.– Pell, SEOG, Trio, Migrant– Federally-insured student loans

• Accreditors must comply with HEA criteria to be recognized.

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System Context (con’t)

1980s and 1990s• HEA reauthorization

– 1986: First outcomes assessment language

– 1998: Assessment language strengthened• Regional accreditors

rewrote standards to emphasize assessment of student learning outcomes

• “Learning-centered” movement

– 1980s: LC and assessment movements —began

– 1995: Barr & Tagg’s seminal article in Change published• A college is an institution that

exists to provide instruction. Shift to new paradigm• A college is an institution that

exists to produce learning.

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System Context (con’t)

Accrediting the Accreditors• National Advisory Committee on Institutional

Quality and Integrity (NACIQI)– Established under HEA 1992– Appointed by Secretary, H of Rep, Senate– Reviews and recognizes accrediting agencies– Advises Secretary on accreditation issues

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System Context (con’t)

• Negotiated rule-making (“neg reg”)– How the U.S. Secretary of Education

implements HEA’s criteria for accreditors– Hold several public meetings– If not unanimous consensus, U.S. Secretary of

Education sets own rules.– New Neg-Reg’s - controversial debates that

have deep impact on distance education• Compensation incentives• Gainful employment• Misrepresentation• State Authorization

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System Context (con’t)

Lawsuit filed: APSCU vs Arne Duncan, DOE SecretaryMotion for Summary Judgment on• Compensation regulations - violates HEA (1965) and

Administrative Procedures Act (1944)• Misrepresentation regulations - violates HEA and APA

and the Constitution (1st Amendment)• State Authorization regulations - violates HEA and

APA60 day minimum public comment cut to 45 days, did not

allow due process

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Accreditation Agency

Accreditors’ Role• Evaluate how well institutions provide information &

answer questions on standards and practices.• Accurately• Truthfully• Meaningfully• Clearly• Accessibly

• Provide clearer, more accessible information on accreditation status.

• Help ensure transparency and accountability to public to build trust in our educational institutions

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Accreditation (con’t)

What is accreditation for an institution•Internal–Requires institutions to participate in an ongoing continual

improvement that stimulates vital educational efforts through a process of self-regulation.– Institutions must meet rigorous organizational standards

considered essential for quality education.

•External–Accreditation ensures that the organization has undergone a

self-study and validation process with a third party accrediting agency that is recognized by the United States Department of Education (USDE). –By achieving accreditation there is an affirmation of quality that

the USDE and the educational community endorses.

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Accreditation (con’t)

Why accreditation is important to institution:• Pubic trust in accredited institutions– High levels of quality program, instruction, service

• Student benefits– Qualify for federal financial aid– Transfer credits more easily– Tuition reimbursement from employers

• Access to special populations like military

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Part II:Culture of Accreditation Initiative (con’t)

• How many of you – Prior to current, ever worked in education industry– Heard of accreditation, first learned of – Know what it means and its characteristic features– Recall the culture of your degree institutions

• What is your institutions’ culture? Do you have one?• Typically, the culture

– Begins with the institutional mission statement, vision and goals

– Bounded by regulations, policies, procedures and practices– Enhanced by resources and facilities

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

• Each accreditation agency has a set of standards and policies to guide conduct of business and the development of reports http://detc.org/accreditationhandbook/index.html

• There are many ways to achieve accreditation, some more successful than others.

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

Less successful way to pursue accreditation• Assign the task to one person with full responsibility to prepare

reports, document evidence, and liaise with the agency. • Pitfalls of this pathway

– No other employee understands the purpose and importance of accreditation or their role in contributing toward approval.

– Operational negative outcome - departments work at cross purposes with non-productive redundancy.

– Critical pathway negative outcome - is the failure to meet DETC accreditation standards and achieve accreditation or loss of re-accreditation.

– During a site visit the team has unlimited access to all records and employees. The team is tasked to review documents to ensure adherence, and to question employees to ensure understanding of accreditation.

– Loss of accreditation is loss of revenue.

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

More successful pathway to pursue accreditation• Create a culture of accreditation within the company. • The culture of accreditation becomes a way of company life in which

all employees view their work as an integral contribution to meet accreditation standards.

• Benefits of this pathway– Employees know the standards, policies, and procedures– Employees understand their role in the process– Creates a more collaborative environment that self-supports business

operations. – Embedding accreditation within the company’s own culture requires

integrating across business plans and accreditation needs to blend the two cultures together.

– Desired positive outcome is timely, successful re-accreditation.

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

The need to create a culture of accreditation can occur at various times in a company’s history.

At least two times are: • prior to initial accreditation• after this, during intervals of operations when

there is high turn-over rate with new employees, change in governance/organization

For a previously approved institution, during intervals of operations with steady-state management and staff, low turn-over, the culture could be fairly stable and known.

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

Case Study: College A is not in a steady-state operation

• Critical cycle in growth trajectory• New executive management team• Key positions filled with experts outside of education

industry who may or may not understand the formal education system and accreditation processes

• High turn over in service areas• New automated systems are in place, slated to be in

place soon, or pending development• These systems have not been fully integrated across

the company and their capacity is unproven

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

• Executives have aggressive growth goals, new tools, and must work together with shared purpose and drive.

• One way to contribute to collaborative work, shared purpose and drive is to create a culture of accreditation.

• This means creating a common body of knowledge and shared understanding of the accreditation standards and policies, and applying this knowledge to the business plans.

• That new tools are coming online are a unique opportunity to design / develop data collection and reporting processes up front to meet competing demands and compliance reporting.

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

PurposeOverall purpose - to create a culture of accreditation at College A

under a new management team. There are three objectives of the Culture of Accreditation initiative. • Provide training

– on standards and policies at management levels– on application of standards and policies as applied to each department

• Build capacity by engaging executives/managers in the accreditation process for the upcoming 5 year reaccreditation cycles

• Develop a parallel process for regional accreditation at degree level that meets impending needs and capacity.

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

Process Year 1Stage 1. Provide training

– Decide with management team those who need to be involved, e.g. all direct reports and selected managers

– External: register in two DETC Online Courses• Business Standards• Preparing for Accreditation

– Internal: hold tutorials and workshops on accreditation standards as they apply to College A and each department

Build Capacity – regular meetings, exercises– Build capacity on data collection, reporting capabilities, ensuring

systems in place– Assign reporting responsibilities to executive managers

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

Stage 2. Year 2Build Capacity and Engagement• Delegate reporting responsibilities to executive managers• To support 5-year reaccreditation process have regular, monthly

meetings on status and progress toward reporting requirements.• Apply the systems, data collection, reporting functions to meet the

DETC standards, SER and exhibits evidence

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

After completed, take training to the next level down in management. In the case study, 33% of all staff will have completed the Preparing for Accreditation course. Accounts Receivable: “Now I understand the why we have the refund policy. I thought that was something our company came up with.”

NOTE: Check with DETC before registering to confirm processing arrangements.

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

• Review the standards, exhibits– Standards – narrative, tell a story (HO1)– Exhibits – data hungry, data driven evidence (HO2)

• Related con-current projects– Mission statement audit - review/revision– Critical document audit (HO3)– Required institutional documents audit– Faculty re-credentailing

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

Critical document audit – 4 of 12 • C.1. Catalog• C.2. Contracts• C.3. Course Development Manual• C.4. Faculty Handbook/Manual• C.5. Institutional Improvement Plan• C.6. Outcomes Assessment Plan• C.7. Student Handbook• C.8. Study Guide• C.9. Succession Plan• C.10. Transcripts• C.11. Web Site Checklist• C.12. Financial Statement Analysis

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

A preliminary audit can show if there are gaps in meeting the DETC requirements

• documents missing• documents inconsistent• documents outdatedCritical documents have to keep pace with

institutional growth and changes

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C of A Initiative (con’t)

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What’s at stake

Once accredited is no guarantee of continued approval:• 2002-Yale General Surgery Center lost accreditation, Medicare

and Medicaid funds are withdrawn from the hospital• 2008-Clayton County Schools Lost Accreditation Students have

tougher time getting into colleges/universities, obtaining scholarships – colleges require HS diploma from accredited schools

• 2009-Southeastern University lost its accreditation, the 130-year-old school did not expect to offer a fall term

• 2011-Atlanta Public Schools On January 18, SACS placed the district’s accreditation of high schools on probation, pending the resolution by the Atlanta Board of Education of six Required Actions by September 30, 2011.

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What’s at stake (con’t)

External pressures can undermine operations, and change the nature of accreditation – the status quo does not work any longer

• NCAA has a new set of standards 1/2010• AdvancED • Military requires different instructional model• Online for-profit schools under fire from DOE:

compensation, misrepresentation, state authorization

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Questions

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