Systematic Improvement and Continuing Accreditation

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Systems Portfolio
Systematic Improvement and Continuing
Accreditation
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What is BTC?What is OUR Mission?

• Belmont Technical College is a learner-centered
  institution committed to meeting the academic,
  technical, career development and workforce needs
  of individuals, businesses, industries, and
  organizations.
• To serve its diverse student population and
  provide access to necessary skills in a rapidly
  changing workplace, the College employs a range
  of delivery systems including distance and
  community-based education, and strives to
  maintain low tuition rates and an abundance of
  financial aid sources.
• To provide an environment where quality lifelong
  learning can take place, the College depends on a
  constant and continually evolving interface with
  all community stakeholders.

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What is AQIP?

• The Academic Quality Improvement Program attempts
  to infuse the principles and benefits of
  continuous quality improvement into the culture
  of colleges and universities by providing an
  alternative process through which an
  already-accredited institution can maintain its
  accreditation from the Higher Learning Commission
  of the North Central Association of Colleges and
  Schools.

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Goals of AQIP

• Help member organizations improve performance and
  maximize effectiveness
• Provide the public with credible quality
  assurance concerning higher education providers

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AQIP Philosophy

• Voluntary, alternative process
• Concentrates on academic quality
• Involves more faculty more directly
• Provides concrete feedback to enable institutions
  to raise performance levels
• Reduces intrusiveness, cost, and slow improvement
  cycles

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AQIP Philosophy (continued)

• Replaces one-size fits all approach
• Supplies public with more understandable, useful
  information concerning the quality and value of
  accredited colleges and universities
• Recognizes and celebrates institutional
  distinctiveness and outstanding achievements

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BTC and AQIP

• AQIP provides the framework for BTC to pursue
  continuous quality improvement efforts that
  support our mission and visionthus, maintaining
  BTCs accreditation with NCA and the Higher
  Learning Commission.

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AQIP Asks BTC

• How strongly do you want change and improvement?
• How clearly do you understand the key processes
  you use?
• How honestly do you grasp your current
  performance?
• How seriously do you reflect on acting on your
  values?
• How well do you know your students and
  stakeholders?

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Principles of High Performance Organizations
Research and experience indicate that these
common principles permeate colleges and
universities that have achieved a systematic
approach to continuous quality improvement

• Focus
• Involvement
• Leadership
• Learning
• People

• Collaboration
• Agility
• Foresight
• Information
• Integrity

.
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BTC MUST

• Demonstrate accountability
• Use data and information effectively
• Cope with technology
• Survive intensifying competition
• Cope with shrinking resources
• Stay agile and respond quickly
• Increase access and student success
• Prepare for personnel transitions

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The Quality Movement

• Quality is meeting and exceeding the customers
  needs and expectations and then continuing to
  improve.
• --W. Edwards Deming

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Self- Assessment
Application to Join AQIP
Systems Appraisal
Strategy Forum
Systems Portfolio
Annual Updates
Action Projects
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Our Action Projects to Date

• Community College Proposal
• Retention
• Program Review Model
• Planning

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Whats Next?

• Develop a Systems Portfolio
• Act upon the Systems Appraisal feedback NCA
  provides after reviewing our Systems Portfolio
• Retire some Action Projects and identify new ones
• Continue to work on existing Action Projects

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What is a system? It is a series of functions
or activities (sub-processes or stages) within
an organization that work together for the aim of
the organization. - W. Edwards Deming
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The Systems Portfolio

• AQIP calls upon institutions to undergo a Systems
  Appraisal every four years.
• Gleaning information from the Systems Portfolio,
  the Systems Appraisal provides expert,
  objective, third party feedback on our strengths
  and opportunities for improvement.
• In turn, what we learn from the Systems Appraisal
  will help us determine our next targets for
  advancing quality at BTC through Action Projects
  and other planning processes.

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• The Systems Portfolio will paint an accurate,
  vivid, unifying portrait of BTCs operations that
  will serve as a common ground for internal
  discussions of where and how to best direct
  efforts for improvement.

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Updated Results
Improved Processes
Our web-based Systems Portfoliois created once
and then maintained as we continuously examine
results and update processes as needed.
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The Systems Portfolio

• The Systems Portfolio comprehensively portrays
  the colleges current stages of development in
  relationship to the nine AQIP categories.

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3
4
5
6
7
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The AQIP Categories Provide The Organizing
Structure For The AQIP Systems Portfolio
Overview of Nine Categories
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What the AQIP Categories Do

• provide the framework for colleges to examine
  their processes
• promote a dialogue about how an institution
  determines and achieves its goals
• create focus on design, deployment, results, and
  improvement
• help a college determine whether it meets the
  Higher Learning Commissions expectations and
  standards

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Each AQIP Category Asks

• How stable, well-designed, and robust are your
  systems and processes?
• How consistently do you employ and deploy your
  systems and processes?
• How satisfying and good are the results your
  systems and processes achieve?
• How do you use your performance data to drive
  improvement?

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Each Category Asks Questions in Relation to the
Following

• Context for Analysis (C) responses provide
  readers with the big picture view of your
  systems and processes for each category.
• Processes (P) responses describe your processes
  related to each category.
• Results (R) responses provide your results for
  each category.
• Improvement (I) responses describe how you are
  improving your processes and results for each
  category.

C
P
R
I
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How Many Questions?

• Context (25)
• Processes (68)
• Results (29)
• Improvement (18)

140 Questions!
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We Must Ask Ourselves

• Are we doing the right things the things that
  are most important in order to achieve your
  institutions goals?
• Are we doing things right effectively,
  efficiently, in ways that truly satisfy the needs
  of those you serve?

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Example Question 1C1(Category 1 Helping
Students Learn)

• What are the common student learning objectives
  you hold for all of your students (regardless of
  their status or particular program of study) and
  the pattern of knowledge and skills you expect
  your students to possess upon completion of their
  general and specialized studies?

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Example Question 1P1 (Category 1 Helping
Students Learn)

• How do you determine your common student learning
  objectives as well as specific program learning
  objectives? Who is involved in setting these
  objectives?

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Example Question 1R1 (Category 1 Helping
Students Learn)

• What are your results for common student learning
  objectives as well as specific program learning
  objectives?

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Example Question 1I1 (Category 1 Helping
Students Learn)

• How do you improve your current processes and
  systems for helping students learn and develop?

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Creating a Systems Portfolio
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Who Will Be Involved in Developing the Systems
Portfolio?

• Assembling the BTC Systems Portfolio will
  involve everyone in exploring critical questions
  about key institutional objectives and
  operations

• How do we do this now?
• What results are we getting?
• How can we improve our performance?

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What Will be the Role of the PIE Team?

• The Planning and Institutional Effectiveness Team
  (PIE) is mapping out the process by which the
  colleges Systems Portfolio will be developed.
• The team will coordinate the work of college
  employees as the Systems Portfolio develops.
• A subgroup of the PIE Team will prepare the final
  web-based document to be submitted to NCA.

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Your Role

• Actively participating in the development of
  answers to the Portfolio questions. You may be
  asked to participate in a Focus Group.
• Ensuring that the information is consistent with
  the colleges actual performance in relationship
  to the nine categories.
• The project will require the engagement of every
  functional area of the college and will include
  activities that mirror those embedded in
  formalized strategic planning processes.
• While the PIE Team membership is cross-functional
  in nature and eager to facilitate the development
  of the portfolio, this project must be clearly
  understood, endorsed, and actively supported by
  the college community and other key stakeholders,
  such as, the Board of Trustees.

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What is a Focus Group?

• A group selected, screened, and gathered for
  discussion of a specific topic, usually for
  several hours and in great detail.
• A focus group generally consists of a group of
  six to 12 participants, with the focus provided
  by a moderator.
• This type of study is often used in the
  development of product concepts or in the first
  phase of an exploratory investigation of a
  problem.

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Submission Date Deadline/Goal

• NCAs deadline for submission is November 2006.
• The PIE Team proposes an October 2006 submission
  date.

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The Systems Appraisal

• Provides confirmation of strengths and guidance
  on improvement opportunities.
• Appraisals are performed by a diverse panel of
  trained and experienced reviewers, knowledgeable
  about quality improvement in higher education
  organizations, as well as from outside
  sourcesenhancing the Systems Appraisals
  credibility.

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The Systems Appraisal of the Systems Portfolio
is completed every 4 years.
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The Systems Appraisal Will Include

• Valuable professional feedback
• Summary rubrics
• Confidential, detailed, actionable comments and
  explanations (for institutional benefit and
  improvement)

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What Will be the Outcome? The Stages of
Development The Metrics of the Systems Appraisal

• Beginning--The institution is just beginning to
  gather results showing how successful its
  approaches and processes are. Performance data
  has not been collected long enough to reveal
  trends or patterns.
• Developing--Performance data has not been
  collected long enough to reveal trends or
  patterns. Anecdotal evidence of improvements,
  occurring at irregular intervals is provided.
• Maturing--Growing, emergent processes that
  typically achieve many of their goals have been
  put in place. A record of significant
  improvements, occurring periodically, as the
  result of specific initiatives is provided.
• Proficient--Practical, sturdy processes that
  generally achieve their fundamental goals are in
  place. A record of significant improvements
  resulting from systematic multiyear (two - 10
  year) improvement processes is provided.
• Accomplished--Robust, experienced processes exist
  that usually achieve many of their goals. The
  organization identifies a record of concrete
  advances in a few areas resulting from rapid
  improvement cycles occurring at least annually.
• Commendable--Strong, established processes exist
  that usually achieve most of their goals.
• Outstanding--Vigorous, tested processes exist
  that consistently achieve all of their goals in
  all or most areas.

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Category Feedback

• Important strengths/ achievements/ capabilities
  upon which to build
• Identifies strengths
• Identifies opportunities
• Areas where attention may result in more
  significant improvement

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Madison Area Technical Colleges feedback in
their Systems Appraisal for Category 1, Helping
Students Learn, was as follows
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Without Your Help
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We Need Your
Piece of the PIE!
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Feedback
Prepared by Members of BTC's PIE Team