Executive Summary
The Higher Learning Commission April 2002 comprehensive
evaluation report of Sauk Valley Community College called for a
2005 focused visit on assessment of student academic achievement
and strategic planning. The report identified nine expectations to
be met for assessment by the time of the focused visit, and eight
for strategic planning. SVCC's full compliance with the HLC's expectations is described and explained in this report.
Since 2002, SVCC's systems for assessment and strategic planning
have undergone revolutionary change. We now recognize and
communicate clearly that quality student learning resides at the
core of decision making. This focused visit report describes Sauk's
journey towards becoming a learning-centered college and
specifically how we have redesigned and implemented our assessment
and strategic planning processes. Separately bound appendices have
been included with this document to provide supporting
documentation. The College website (www.svcc.edu) and the HLC team
resource room also contain documents referenced in this
report.
Sauk Valley Community College serves a 100,000-resident, mostly
rural district in northwestern Illinois. It was founded in 1965 and
is governed by a seven-member publicly elected Board of Trustees.
It offers courses in vocational-technical fields; academic transfer
areas; developmental, adult and continuing education; community
service; and career education. The College prides itself on
offering a variety of experiences that assist students in exploring
the community's diversity. In 2004 Sauk adopted the Learning
College model and developed governance and systems changes needed
to support this philosophy's impact on the strategic planning and
assessment systems. The new system includes the Organizational
Planning and Improvement System Chart, a graphic representation of
the interrelationships among students, faculty, staff, committees,
administration, and external stakeholders as they continuously work
to achieve quality learning. Revised committee structures and
charges support the new system, with the Organizational Planning
and Improvement Committee (OPIC) providing a central collection
point and linking strategic planning, budget, and assessment. A
task timeline lends cyclical reliability to the system by setting
deadlines and communicating to committees the effect of their
actions on other stages of the process.
The HLC's comprehensive evaluation team charged Sauk with
improving its strategic planning system by achieving more inclusive
employee and Board involvement, demonstrating accountability,
linking plans to the mission and goals, coordinating plans across
departments, assessing progress, and communicating and supporting
the mission. Since the comprehensive visit Sauk has worked through
College-wide activities to adopt revised vision, philosophy and
mission statements and new goals, objectives, and operational
plans. Emphasis has been placed on strong communications and the
involvement of the Board of Trustees and employees from throughout
the College. The strategic plan is generated through the support of
the new OPIC-based committee structure and timeline. It gains input
from individuals, the assessment system, program reviews, and SWOT
(strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats) analysis and feeds
into the annual budget. Enhancements of the system are
ongoing.
The HLC's comprehensive evaluation team charged Sauk with
improving its academic assessment system by developing a clear
philosophy statement of general education, specific outcome
competency expectations, quantifiable measures of student
attainment of competency, systematic data collection, communication
about the process, a link from assessment data and information to
planning and budgeting, and commitment of budget to the assessment
program. Since the comprehensive visit faculty have developed six
major general education competencies and built a way to collect
consistent data about the competencies and career goals. They
adopted the Nichols model for developing the plan, created and
piloted a data collection system, and incorporated linkages between
the assessment system and strategic planning, which then feeds into
budget. College-wide assessment data collection began in Fall 2004,
with initial analysis in Spring 2005. Significant staff development
time and resources have been devoted to developing and implementing
the assessment plan. Enhancements of the system are ongoing.
The Learning college model provides that systems developed in
response to HLC expectations can be maintained into the future and
embedded in the organizational culture. Significant professional
development activities have helped faculty, staff and
administrators learn about the new system and philosophy.
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