This college will receive an answer for its continued accreditation mid-June.
By Wally Perez
gperez239@student.alamo.edu
This college has been working on improvements in the past year during the reaffirmation process of its accreditation, and one improvement was a large increase in courses that have been assessed.
The report, in the works since 2013-2014, was submitted Feb. 25 to the Southern Association of Colleges and School Commission on Colleges.
In fall 2014, there were 2,907 courses offered and 1,220 were assessed, or 42 percent. In fall 2015, there were 2,648 courses offered and 2,386 were assessed, or 90 percent.
Dr. Johnnie Rosenauer, real estate professor and this college’s liaison to SACSCOC, has worked on two 10-year reports and a five-year midterm review.
Every 10 years a school is reaffirmed with SACSCOC; this college’s next reaffirmation will become effective Sept. 1, he said.
About three years ago, this college began to prepare a report based on the guidelines that SACSCOC asked this college to respond to, he said.
According to the report, administrator evaluations weren’t done in a timely manner, which Rosenauer knew was a prior problem.
“These were minor points that needed fixes, faculty qualification and things like that,” Rosenauer said.
Student learning outcomes were another area of requested improvement.
Over the last three terms, there were vast improvements in how many courses were assessed, he said.
“There have been assessments and learning outcomes for a while, but they seemed lackluster until now,” Rosenauer said.
The commission will look over the report and submit its decision to President Robert Vela mid-June on whether the college will be reaccredited, he said.
Rosenauer is confident that the college will be reaffirmed saying, “it’s a solid report and nothing should stop the college from achieving reaffirmation.”
Dr. Kristine Clark, chief of Integrated Planning and Performance Excellence, talked about the report during a College Council meeting March 8.
After the final report was submitted, another was run, and although SACSCOC will see a 90 percent assessment rate, it’s actually up to 94 percent, she said.
“We set a goal for 100 percent, we knew at the time that it was a very huge target for this college because of size and complexity, but to hit 94 percent, it’s well worth celebrating,” Clark said.
Susan Espinoza, director of college and grants development, followed Clark’s statement saying that this college may be the only college or university in the country that measures this large of a sample.
“This wasn’t done just because a SACSCOC report was due; it was done because it’s the right answer when we look at learning outcomes to see what students are learning and achieving,” Clark said.
“This has laid the foundation for us to be in a place for the first time that we can really address the quality of that work in a way we haven’t been able to before,” Clark said.
Now the IPPE department can identify gaps between what it is that users need to know, so they can approach the next planning cycle with a greater level of quality.
Vela expressed gratitude and acknowledged Clark’s team as well as faculty and staff who made it possible.
