Standard I. Mission, Academic Quality and Institutional Effectiveness, and Integrity

Standard I. Mission, Academic Quality and Institutional Effectiveness, and Integrity

The institution demonstrates strong commitment to a mission that emphasizes student learning and student achievement. Using analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, the institution continuously and systematically evaluates, plans, implements, and improves the quality of its educational programs and services. The institution demonstrates integrity in all policies, actions, and communication. The administration, faculty, staff, and governing board members act honestly, ethically, and fairly in the performance of their duties.

I.A. Mission

I.A.1.The mission describes the institution’s broad educational purpose, its intended student population, the types of degrees and other credentials it offers, and its commitment to student learning and student achievement. (ER 6)

Evidence of Meeting the Standard

Clovis Community College’s Mission Statement addresses its broad educational purpose, intended student population, the types of degrees and credentials it offers, and its commitment to student learning and achievement. The Mission Statement is:

Creating Opportunities – One Student at a Time

• We embrace diversity and serve all students of the community;
• We believe education is based on integrity, generosity, and accountability;
• We foster critical, creative, and engaged thinking;
• We support student success by preparing students for their futures and for the community’s future through career/technical certificates, degrees, and transfer programs;
• We cultivate community partnerships to enhance student learning and success;
• We engage in reflective, data-driven cycles of research and innovation focused on learning and student outcomes.

(Approved by the Board of Trustees, July 2, 2013, page 114)

Broad Educational Purpose: CCC’s Mission Statement indicates that the College provides preparation and training that supports students in pursuit of their educational goals. Specifically, the College “support[s] student success by preparing students for their futures and for the community’s future through career/technical certificates, degrees, and transfer programs.” [Evidence: Mission Statement]

Intended Student Population: As part of the California Community College system, CCC is an open-access institution. The Mission Statement clearly points out that CCC embraces all students in the community. At CCC, faculty, staff, and administrators embody the idea of a community of learners with students in classrooms and services and expand beyond that to include the neighboring region and distance learners as well.

Types of Degrees/Certificates Offered: The Mission Statement identifies CCC as a degree and certificate-granting institution. CCC confers Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees, Associate Degrees for Transfer to California State University (CSU), and certificates of completion and achievement in a variety of career technical educational fields. The college catalog describesdegree and certificate offerings. [Evidence: Mission Statement and college catalog]

Commitment to Student Learning and Achievement: The beginning of CCC’sMission, “creating opportunities one student at a time,” implies individual and, ultimately, collective student learning and achievement. When the College developed the Mission Statement, faculty, staff, and administrators embedded CCC’s core values in the Mission, including integrity, generosity, and accountability to students along with support of student learning and success. It also encourages community partnerships through CTE and transfer programs.

From 2015-2017, each committee reviewed the Mission Statement annually at its first meeting of the academic year and forwarded suggestions for changes to the Student Success Committee. In the summer of 2017, the College revised its Governance Handbook and, as part of that revision, changed the process for reviewing the Mission. In fall 2017, faculty, staff, administrators, and students participated in a collective review and validation of the Mission at a college-wide planning retreat on September 15. After that, the College will review the Mission every other year in accordance with the College’s six-year planning cycle. [Evidence: CC Meeting Minutes 9-9-16, Ed Master Plan Retreat on 10-21-16, Planning retreat 9-15-17, six-year planning document from CC minutes 8-25-17]

Faculty, staff, and administrators widely display the Mission in classrooms, offices, posters on campus, and on major publications and the website. The Mission drives the continual improvement process for even greater student learning and achievement.

Analysis and Evaluation

The CCC Mission Statement states the College’s broad educational purpose, intended student population, types of degrees and certificates offered, and expresses CCC’s commitment to and support for student learning and success at the College and in the community, in part, by engaging in “reflective, data driven cycles of research and innovation focused on learning and student outcomes.” All constituent groups at the College have the opportunity to participate in regular review of the Mission Statement.

Actionable Improvement Plan(s)

None.

I.A.2. The institution uses data to determine how effectively it is accomplishing its mission, and whether the mission directs institutional priorities in meeting the educational needs of students.

Evidence of Meeting the Standard

CCC regularly uses data to assess achievement of the College’sMission. The Office of Institutional Research leads these evaluations by providing annual reports that they share with committees and the overall campus community. The primary annual report created by the Office of Institutional Research is the Institutional Effectiveness Report, which includes analysis of student learning and progress along with other key performance indicators. [Evidence: Institutional Effectiveness Report, OIR website?]

During 2016-2017, CCC faculty, staff, administrators and students collaborativelydevelopedthe College’s Educational Master Plan 2017-2027with the assistance of consultants. The College began its work on the updated Educational Master Plan with a review of the Mission and Vision, which set the groundwork for the data faculty, staff, and students reviewed as they considered the plan’s goals and objectives. College Council, the College’s overarching participatory governance group, will monitor each goal annually to assure the College continues to meet its Mission. The Educational Master Plan contains both qualitative and quantitative data used to analyze institutional effectiveness and academic quality. The data delineates the demographics of CCC’s student population including disaggregated data on ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic backgrounds. [Evidence: Educational Master Plan, minutes/data from EMP retreat]

In addition, the College developed its Strategic Plan 2017-2021, guided by three overarching principles, Community, Equity, and Innovation, and related to the six overarching goals of the Educational Master Plan. The development of the Strategic Plan involved representatives from all of the College’s constituent groups, including students, at a large-scale planning session. Faculty, staff, administrators, and students engaged in data analysis at the planning session, and their work served as a basis for the Strategic Plan.[Evidence: Strategic Plan, minutes from the Strategic Planning Retreat?]

The program review process contributes to an understanding of how effectively the College is fulfilling its Mission. Each instructional and non-instructional program reviews achievement and survey data as well as profile and enrollment data that is accessible on the Office of Institutional Research provides on its web page. The Program Review Handbook describes the requirement that each unit going through the comprehensive program review process must state how it supports the College’s Mission. Therefore, review of enrollment, student success/achievement, and SLO assessment data helps CCC faculty, staff, and administrators determine that the College is accomplishing its overall Mission. [Evidence: Program Review Handbook, sample Program Reviews, link to OIR website with PR data]

The College also regularly monitors its retention, success, persistence, and completions disaggregated by gender, age, and ethnicity to ensure steady progress toward meeting its one and six-year institutional targets for student achievement (i.e. success, retention, degrees and certificates, and transfer) as well as to ensure that resources are provided to support those populations that may be struggling. The Office of Institutional Research created theInstitutional Effectiveness Reportin 2016, and it includes the aforementioned data. It is readily available on the College’s website and updated annually to complement other data faculty are using to assess achievement and equity. [Evidence: Institutional Effectiveness Report, link to OIR website, IEPI indicators for 2017]

Last year, the Student Success and Equity Committee reviewed a significant amount of data in their process of creating the Student Equity Plan. The Student Equity Plan focuses on increasing access, course and degree completion, transfer rates, and closing the achievement gap in success for underrepresented students. The Student Success and Equity Committee participated in developing goals and activities to address disparities in student outcomes. The Mission Statement guides the Student Equity Plan, wherein the commitment to student equity is inherent: “Creating opportunities, one student at a time.”

In another example, each instructional and non-instructional program reviews program-specific equity data for their comprehensive program reviews along with student and program learning outcomes. Department members align goals with the Mission and substantiate their progress toward those goals in Annual Progress Reports. [Evidence: Comprehensive Program Review, Program Review Handbook, Instructional Program Review Data Packets, Student Equity Data Packets, Institutional Effectiveness Report]

Analysis and Evaluation

CCC reviews data to determine whether it is accomplishing its Mission. Faculty, staff, and administrators review analysis and assessment for planning, goal setting, and decision making as outlined in the Integrated Planning Model. Institutional planning prioritiesaddress student needs and increase student learning and achievement, the core of the college Mission. The Educational Master Plan, Strategic Plan, Student Equity and SSSP Plans all guide the College in a regular review of its Mission and Values. [Evidence: Educational Master Plan, PR Examples]

Actionable Improvement Plan(s)

None.

I.A.3. The institution’s programs and services are aligned with its mission. The mission guides institutional decision-making, planning, and resource allocation and informs institutional goals for student learning and achievement.

Evidence of Meeting the Standard

Comprehensive program review for CCC instructional and non-instructional programs ensure that instructional programs, student and learning support services, and administrative servicesalign with the Mission of the College.

The College’sMission is central to the development of the planning and decision making process in the Integrated Planning Model, which uses data and analysis throughout the cycle of evaluation, integrated planning, resource allocation, implementation, and reevaluation to improve student learning and achievement.

Deans of instruction and the Dean of Student Services continually monitor enrollment and completion data to guide decisions as to which courses to offer and at which times, as well as how many sections are optimal.

The College Mission and Values shape the College’s culture and are the basis for the Educational Master Plan 2017-2027, which serves as the College’s central planning document and establishes a clear set of performance measures to guide planning efforts. The Educational Master Plan details all major academic and educational planning objectives to support its Mission and institutional goals. The College also aligns each objective in the Strategic Plan 2017-2021 to a goal in the Educational Master Plan, and objectives in specific program plans, such as the Student Equity Plan, align with goals in the Strategic Plan. (Evidence: Comprehensive Program Review, Integrated Planning Model, EMP Retreat minutes, FTEs Monitoring, Weekly Capacity Reports)

Analysis and Evaluation

All instructional and non-instructional programs address how they meet the needs of the College’s student population and support its Mission as part of a regular cycle of program review. Department members analyze data on enrollment, success, retention, SLO assessment, and grade distribution for each program, and this data analysis provides the basis for creating goals and supporting requests for additional resources. The Program Review Handbook asks each department and service to provide a narrative on the purpose of its program and how its program goals support the College’s Mission and Strategic Plan. (Evidence: Strategic Planning Retreat minutes; new Strategic Plan, Planning model)

Actionable Improvement Plan(s)

None.

I.A.4. The institution articulates its mission in a widely published statement approved by the governing board. The mission statement is periodically reviewed and updated as necessary.

Evidence of Meeting the Standard

The Board of Trustees approved the College’sMission Statement July 2, 2013.The College reaffirmed its Mission as it created its Educational Master Plan 2017-2027 and Strategic Plan 2017-2021.The College regularly reviews the Mission and updates it as necessary. Prior to fall 2017, all committees reviewed the Mission at their first meeting of the school year. Committees forwarded suggestions for changes to the Student Success Committee. The Student Success Committee considered all suggestions and forwarded them to College Council. If those groups decided to change Mission Statement wording, then College Council distributed the revised Mission to constituency groups for approval, and then recommended the approved Mission to the President. The President takes the Mission to the Board of Trustees for the final approval in the process. [Evidence: committee minutes, Student Success minutes, College Council minutes recording Mission review]

In fall 2017, College Council updated the College’s planning and review processes and created a six-year planning calendar. In the updated calendar cycle, the College will review the Mission every two years instead of every year. College Council will initiate the review and distribute the revised Mission Statement to constituency groups for approval. As with the previous review process, College Council recommends the revised Mission Statement to the President who then takes it to the Board for final approval. At the College’s fall retreat in 2017, the Vice President of Instruction and Student Services and the Academic Senate President led a review of the Mission and a validation exercise. According to the College’s planning cycle, the next Mission review will take place in fall 2019.

The College publishes the statement in all major documents, posts it throughout the campus and in all classrooms, and on administrator emails. This accomplishes the goal to have all committees and stakeholders aware of the Mission. (Evidence: BOT minutes XXXXX, page#, College Council minutes XXXX, Academic Senate minutes XXXX, Classified Senate minutes XXXX, ASG Minutes XXXX, College Website, Administrator email signature).

In 2016, the Office of Institutional Research conducted a survey of faculty, staff, and administrators about the College’s fulfillment of Accreditation Standards. Ninety-eight faculty, staff, and administrators responded to the survey, and of those identified, 68% were faculty, 27% were staff, and 5% administration; 55% were full-time employees. Question 1 on the survey specifically addressed the Mission Statement: “CCC articulates its mission in a widely published statement approved by the governing board. The mission statement is periodically reviewed and updated as necessary.” One hundred percent of those who responded to the statement agreed or strongly agreed with it; twelve respondents indicated they “did not know.” Those who did not know may have been part-time or new employees.

Analysis and Evaluation

CCC regularly reviews and, when necessary, revises its Mission Statement, which all constituent groups review through a collaborative process, and the Board of Trustees approves the Mission. The College widely publishes the Mission, and faculty, staff, and administrators use the Mission as the foundation of planning.Through the mission review process, students, faculty, classified staff, and administrators participate in and contribute to the evaluation. (Evidence: Board of Trustees minutes, July 2, 2013, page 114, College Council minutes September 9, 2016, (website, catalog, classroom photos, administrator e-mails)

Actionable Improvement Plan(s)

None.

Standard I.B: Assuring Academic Quality and Institutional Effectiveness

Academic Quality

I.B.1. The institution demonstrates a sustained, substantive, and collegial dialog about student outcomes, student equity, academic quality, institutional effectiveness, and continuous improvement of student learning and achievement.

Evidence of Meeting the Standard

Administrators, faculty, and staff at Clovis Community College (CCC) engage in continuous, collaborative, and collegial dialog regarding student outcomes, student equity, academic quality, institutional effectiveness, and the ongoing improvement of student learning and achievement.