Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #1: Admissions policies, developed and implemented, that support and reflect the mission of the institution;

1. How do our admission policies support and reflect institutional mission?
2. Are there aspects of institutional mission which influence/dictate/help determine admission policies and their implementation?
3. Is there evidence of admission policies and practices which may not support and reflect institutional mission?

Examine admission policies for specific evidence which supports and reflects institutional mission

Examine admission practices, and determine which practices  further and which ones may impede fulfillment of  institutional mission

Determine if admission policies and practices have changed/evolved in order to support and reflect institutional mission as it has changed/evolved over past 10 years

Study student demographics, characteristics, and learning outcomes for evidence that admission policies and practices support and reflect institutional mission.   

Consider statistical sampling techniques and survey research

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #2: Admissions policies and criteria available to assist the prospective students in making informed decisions;

1. What information sources exist about admission policies and criteria?  Are there primary and secondary sources?  How are these information sources developed, kept current, and accurate?
2. What methods and strategies are used to make admission information available to prospective students?
3. How do we know that the admission information which we provide is useful for helping prospective students make informed decisions?

Identify and categorize, by intent /purpose, each source of  information about admission policies and criteria

Identify originators/authors of admission information, originating sources, and examine procedures used to ensure accuracy of information and its appropriate disseminations

Identify methods used for making information available to prospective students.  Examine information formats, print and non-print media, availability of sources, levels of complexity, contexts. appropriateness, and suitability factors

Review queries of first time enrollees about usefulness, comprehensiveness, and sources for information about admissions policies and criteria (e.g., PIR, planning initiatives, Student Satisfaction Survey )

Examine the framework containing the various sources of  information about admission and criteria; identify any gaps which may exist (e.g.,  areas where admissions policies and criteria are not made available to prospective students)

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #3: Accurate and comprehensive information regarding academic programs, including any required placement or diagnostic testing;

1. How do we assess accuracy and comprehensiveness of academic programs information?
2. What practices, procedures, and policies do we implement to periodically review admission and academic program information?
3. When academic program information changes, how quickly is the information updated and again made available?

Examine program review policies and meeting records for standing committees concerned with curricula, academic standards, program accreditations, academic planning, and shared governance

Examine policies and procedures which guide processes for publishing academic program information, and related admissions requirements in College’s catalogs, view books, websites, and other official College publications identify primary, secondary, external, and internal sources of mandates for institutional obligation and requirements for academic program information that is accurate and comprehensive  (e.g. PDE, US Dept of Ed, policies,  regulations, statutes)

Review archived data related to academic programs,

required and completed program reviews, outcomes, and  relevant dates

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #4: Information on student learning outcomes available to prospective students;

1. What types of information about student learning outcomes do we make available to prospective students?
2. By which methods do we make information about student learning outcomes available?
3. How do we determine which student learning outcomes will be made available to prospective students?

Identify all sources of information about any type of student learning outcomes which are made available to prospective students.(e.g., web, ad copy, brochures, documents, studies)

Review policies and laws which govern types of information about student learning outcomes that can, cannot, or must be made available to prospective students. 

Determine how the institution implements such policies and/or laws

Investigate how, and if, student learning outcome data, routinely collected by federal and state education agencies, are used to inform prospective students and other populations

Review elements of the website for evidence that student  learning outcomes information is provided through multi-media sources

Determine how routine information about student learning outcomes is used to inform. (e.g., use of information about Deans’ Lists, Honors College, Probation & Suspension, H and HH graduation designations, Transfer  programs)

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #5: Accurate and comprehensive information, and advice where appropriate, regarding financial aid, scholarships, grants, loans, and refunds;

1. What procedures do we use to ensure that financial aid information is accurate and comprehensive?
2. What internal and external controls exist to ensure accuracy of information and advice?
3. What policies and procedures are used to correct inaccurate and incomplete information about financial aid resources?
4. Is there a system of “checks and balances’ between units which process financial aid resources?

Compare, for purposes of accuracy and comprehensiveness, the information that we provide about federal and state aid with the same type information provided by randomly  selected PA community colleges (consider checklist approach)

Conduct survey of students who inquired about financial aid information

Review data collected from various institutional surveys (e.g., S.S.Survey, PIR survey data, archived data)

Examine the various sources of information about financial aid (e.g., Edn Fdn, website, campus depts., First Stop, recruitment events, brochures, catalog, )

Review external consultants’ reports about customer service which specifically address financial aid information.

Develop methodology for testing accuracy and comprehensiveness of information provided about  

financial aid.  Compare and analyze results. 

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #6: Published and implemented policies and procedures regarding transfer credit and credit for extra-institutional college level learning;

1. What policies govern credit transfer and experiential learning practices?
2. How do we make these policies known?
3. How do we ensure that credit transfer information is current and comprehensive?
4. What are procedures for transferring college credit from other HE institutions, and for evaluating experiential learning for college-level credit awards?
5. Are practices consistent across the College?

Investigate internal and external impetuses for granting college credit for courses and experiential learning.  Are there documents, requirements, laws, regulations that require the institution to grant college credit externally acquired?

Contact Registrar; review transfer policies, college catalog, practices

Examine policies and procedures which govern evaluation, acceptance, and inclusion of externally earned college credit on official student transcripts.

Investigate how information about “advanced standing” is  made known

Randomly sample, for accuracy, information provided by the institution’s transfer units

Question students who have transferred college credit to and  from the institution

Conduct test of procedures and outcomes

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Fundamental Element #7:  Ongoing assessment of student success, including but not necessarily limited to retention, that evaluates the match between the attributes of admitted students and the institution’s mission and programs;

1. Are there methodologies which we use to regularly assess student successes?
2. Are there deliberately constructed links between recruitment, admittance, retention, and completion?  Is there a system of “checks and balances”?
3. What intervention strategies do we employ?
4. What are the resources which help students fulfill educational goals that are consistent with institutional mission? What intervention strategies do we employ?
5. What are the resources that help students fulfill educational goals that are consistent with institutional mission?
6. How do we define student success?  How do we measure it? How do we know that we have fulfilled students’ educational intentions?
7. Do we provide educational and/or occupational alternatives for applicants and students whose educational goals are incongruent with institutional mission?  What are some of the alternatives? 
8. What governs our academic probation and suspension policies and practices? 

Define attributes of student success.  Investigate how we evaluate those attributes as congruent with institutional mission

Determine what methodologies are used to regularly assess  student success.

Examine academic progress policies and review practices Identify links, if any, between recruitment, admission, retention, and completion.  Are they accidental or deliberately constructed links? 

Identify intervention strategies, their intentions, policies that govern them, and related outcomes

Question students about quality, availability, and type of institutional resources that they have found most useful

List and categorize resources that provide alternatives for students whose needs are incongruent with institutional mission

Review academic probation and suspension policies.  Study attrition based on these policies and practices, (e.g., Planning initiatives, designated programs & activities)

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Integrity, Fundamental Element #8: honesty and truthfulness in public relations announcements, advertisements, and recruiting and admissions materials;

1. What policies does CCAC have regarding truthfulness in communications?
2. Who monitors communications for these standards?
3. Who enforces these policies? What corrective actions are dictated when there are errors or infractions?

Marketing Department policy manual

Procedure for proofing ad copy and other communications

Interviews with marketing director

Fundamental Elements and Related Questions

Evidence/Methodology

Integrity, Fundamental Element #9: reasonable, continuing access to paper or electronic catalogs;

1. What methods of distribution does CCAC use for catalogs?
2. How are these methods monitored for accessibility to students?

See Fundamental Element # 3, above