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Date: January 15, 2002
To Department Chairs and Directors of Programs and Offices:
From: Jerrold Pritchard, Associate Provost for Academic Programs
Subject: WASC Self-study Inventory of Evidence of CSUSB’s Educational Effectiveness and Community
As part of the comprehensive Self-study Review that is now underway for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, we must provide a report on our activities and examples of how we believe we meet the new WASC accreditation standards, especially in terms of educational and operational effectiveness. The committees working on the three themes chosen for the self-study have been looking at the kinds of data and evidence we collect on student achievement and performance as well as the many attitude and satisfaction surveys the campus uses to provide information on the students, alumni, faculty, programs and offices.
We are seeking your assistance in identifying other authenthic sources of information about the educational effectiveness of our institution and how it operates to support student, faculty and staff. The best sources of information are likely to be found at the departmental or program level, where faculty and staff are most intimately engaged with students and in carrying out the many, many excellent services and programs we provide. Therefore, we are asking you to provide us with concrete examples of the kinds of successful programs and of student achievements that we might include in our WASC self-study report and show on our web-site as evidence that CSUSB has a core commitment to excellent and educational effectiveness.
This is your chance to tell about the great things that are happening in your area of the campus. Don’t be shy. Let us know of the good works and successes in your departments.
We are particularly interested in knowing about the ways that the campus is meeting our goals of 1) Becoming a Teaching and Learning Community, 2) Ensuring that this is a safe and supporting internal campus community, and 3) Interacting with and serving our external community. Although the precise focus and meaning of “Community” will vary from program to program according to whether one is dealing with local constituencies or those at some distance from the campus, we are using this broad and inclusive operational definition of community: Learning Community: A group of people with a common set of interests and goals who come together on a regular basis in a specific locale (physical or electronic) to share ideas, enhance understanding, and support one another.
On the attached sheets we have developed a series of questions that suggest the kinds of things you might want to include as evidence for your program or department. Please discuss these questions with your faculty and staff and send us back your examples of educational effectiveness and community by February 1st. We have left blanks on the form for providing a list or description of items you suggest we include in our report, but feel free to attach additional material and/or provide samples of the kind of faculty, student and staff activities and achievements you want to share with WASC.
We also will be sending you this questionnaire as an e-mail attachment so that you can respond in an electronic format that will more easily incorporated into our report and web site Data Portfolio, but we will accept your submissions either in hard copy or electronically.
WASC Self-study Inventory of Evidence of CSUSB’s Educational Effectiveness
Please provide below in space provided a listing/description of the types of examples you would suggest that the WASC self-study committees include in their reports to show that CSUS is committed to educational effectiveness as a learning community. You may also attach examples and more extensive evidence as needed. Electronic submissions are especially encouraged. You can get copy of this questionnaire on-line at http://thewasc.csusb.edu/newsltrs
Please return to the Academic Programs Office AD-101 by February 1, 2002
1. Examples and evidence of “Learning Communities” --either intentional or ad hoc. (Clubs/organizations, research teams, colloquia, Honors programs, Institutes, Centers, Freshmen Seminars, Special Interest Groups, Senior Seminars, Peer Advising/Mentoring, department projects, etc.?)
2. Examples of Office/Program/Departmental Accomplishments, Student and Alumni Achievements. (GRE exam and professional exam results? Acceptance rate in graduate or professional Schools? Employer feedback? Ratings/rankings by professional associations, organizations, etc.?)
3. Examples and evidence of good educational practices and quality of programs. (Both anecdotal and hard evidence are sought: “How do you know you have a quality program or graduates?)
4. Listing with analysis of results of campus and college community involvement activities and impact on campus services & academic programs (Partnerships, outreach to K-12, involvement with agencies and boards, service learning/internships, etc.)
5. Reports on results and findings from student learning outcomes assessment, benchmarking surveys, quality improvement projects, and surveys of students, alumni and those you serve.
6. Examples of how you are using evidence from topics above and integrating findings into improvement/change of regular program operations and daily practice.
Program/Department/Office_______________________________________________
Person submitting form __________________________________________________