The Latest News Surrounding Accreditation Sam foster, south representative David morse, past president Craig rutan, area d representative

History of CCCCO Accreditation Task Forces The Chancellor’s Office has created three different task forces to look at accreditation (2009, 2013, and 2015) The 2015 task force report was approved by the Board of Governors in November 2015. Establish a new model for an accreditation agency for the California Community Colleges Develop an implementation plan with a timeline 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

Implementation Recommendations Following approval of the Task Force Recommendations, an Implementation Task Force was formed At the March 2016 Board of Governors meeting, the BoG directed the Chancellor to: Recommend immediate changes to IMPROVE existing processes and culture of ACCJC Pursue a MODEL for regional accreditation that aligns all segments of higher education in the western region. 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA CEO Workgroups Formed The CEOs (college presidents and chancellors) created two workgroups to work on issues surrounding accreditation Workgroup I Improve the operations and interactions with ACCJC Membership from CEOs, CIOs, ASCCC, and ACCJC Workgroup II Future of accreditation in the California Community Colleges Membership from CEOs, ACCJC, WASC Senior 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

Workgroup I: Improving ACCJC Structure, Function, and Communication Goal: Work with the ACCJC to undertake significant improvements in the structure and functioning of the Commission to address long- standing concerns of its members, giving special attention to the concerns noted by the U.S. Department of Education requiring compliance Five Areas of Focus: Training and Selection, Communication, Evaluation, Processes and Structure of the Visit, Commission Operations 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA Changes Have Been Seen Recent ACCJC Team trainings have been different. Additionally, materials like the Guide to Evaluating Institutions have been updated. ACCJC hosted their first conference in April that included office hours with commission staff. Commission staff have agreed to send communications sent to CEOs and ALOs will be shared with ASCCC to be distributed to senate presidents 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA More Changes ACCJC has appointed an Interim President, Richard Winn, and they staff has been more responsive to inquiries The public comment session for ACCJC meetings will be moved to the first day, prior to when decisions on policy changes have been made ACCJC has provided clearer guidance to how certain standards (I.B.3 and I.B.6) should be evaluated 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA Still More Work to Do Develop and implement a comprehensive evaluation process of ACCJC Revise commission policies, procedures, and templates Develop an implement strategic plan Inform evaluation of President and commission staff Improve professional development offered by ACCJC Reduce burden on colleges and visiting teams Return collegiality to the peer review process 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

Faculty Commissioners Resolution 2.03 F16 included: Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges work with the chief executive officers’ workgroup on accreditation and the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) to ensure that when faculty serving on ACCJC take administrative positions, they are replaced as expeditiously as possible with active faculty members. Currently, ACCJC permits faculty appointees that become an administrator to serve the remainder of their term. Workgroup I has begun discussing this issue with ACCJC. 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

Workgroup II: Western Region Higher Education Accrediting Model Goal: Develop framework for assessing the regional higher education accrediting landscape and determining the best approach for regional alignment and implementation steps. 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

Key Elements for a MODEL System Collegial learning community with accrediting commission as partner Transparency in all aspects of commission governance and operations Well-developed infrastructure for training teams and colleges Highly experienced and qualified technical assistance assigned to each college 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

Key Elements for a MODEL System Peer evaluation from colleagues who understand the goal of accreditation is to improve institutions and serve the “whole student” Focus on clearly defined measures of student learning and success that transcend courses and disciplines. Opportunities for pathways and interactions between leaders, faculty, staff from all segments of higher education Willingness and ability to respond to changing needs and demands, while remaining grounded in values. 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

Consensus of Workgroup II After considering four different options, Workgroup II agreed that the goal is a single accreditor in the western region! Likely would transition from ACCJC to WASC Senior Could take up to 10 years to change accreditor Would need to work with ACCJC and WSCUC to transition. It is not clear that WSCUC would accept all 113 community colleges 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

Rationale for a Single Regional Accreditor Community colleges as respected component of the higher education system Shared goals, standards, students, communities served Common focus on student success, stewardship, quality, improvement Strength in unity facing accountability, accreditation changes Overcome inconsistency in split system of Western region, unlike other 5 U.S. accrediting regions Increasingly blurred lines between higher education segments (CSU doctorate, community college baccalaureate, university associate degrees; public/private/online) Alignment across sectors to meet needs of workforce & STUDENTS (Associate Degrees for Transfer, National Completion Agenda) 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) Resolution 2.02 F16 included: Resolved, That the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges communicate its position to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) and the Department of Education prior to their consideration of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges’ (ACCJC) progress toward compliance with its §602.13(a) and its responsibilities as a regional accreditor. Julie Bruno and John Stanskas both testified at the NACIQI hearing sharing the experiences ASCCC has had working with ACCJC NACIQI recommended that ACCJC be recognized as an approved regional accreditor for 18 months ACCJC can now accredited new baccalaureate degrees, but only one per college 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA

Thank You for Joining Us Do you have any questions? Sam Foster – sfoster@fullcoll.edu David Morse – dmorse@lbcc.edu Craig Rutan – rutan_craig@sccollege.edu 2017 ASCCC Spring Plenary Session – San mateo, CA