Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness

Institutional Effectiveness

Institutional Effectiveness Plan

The College prepares an Institutional Effectiveness Plan, and annually updates the materials, in order to identify planning, assessment and improvements as based on effectiveness.  All faculty and staff have an opportunity to participate in determining the direction the College will take and those actions necessary to support the learning goals of the College.  The process includes components at the Unit, Learning Center and Departmental levels, and a copy is available from the Department of Research and Planning.

Program Review Plan

The College has adopted a Program Review schedule which enables the assessment of each Curriculum program in a three-year cycle.  The process enables examination of each program’s mission, demographics, outcomes and trends as well as Curriculum changes.  A copy of the most recent plan is available from the office of the Executive Vice President. 

Quality Enhancement Plan

In partial fulfillment of SACS reaffirmation criteria, the College has developed a Quality Enhancement Plan that focuses on the Learning through Effective Educational Planning (LEEP) program.  The outcomes assessment effort began in 2004-05 with focus groups leading to identification of the LEEP program.  A copy of the plan is available from the office of the Executive Vice President. 

Performance Measures and Standards

• Performance Measures 2007 - 2008 

In the 2007 Session, the General Assembly approved modification to the North Carolina Performance Measures and Standards as adopted by the State Board of Community Colleges on March 16, 2007. As a result the number of performance measures was reduced to 8. In order to receive an Exceptional Institutional Performance rating, a college must meet or exceed all 8 performance funding measures, cannot have any licensure exam (for which the college controls who takes the exam) with a passing rate of less than 70%, and the performance of students who transfer to a 4-year institution must meet or exceed the performance level of native UNC students.

Link to NCCCS New Performance Measures and Standards

Strategic Planning

The College has completed numerous Strategic Plans, and is currently in the process of undertaking a new strategic planning process during 2009-10.  The intent is to complete a new Strategic Plan for 20010 – 2013, complete with a new Mission Statement, Vision, Strategic Goals and Core Values.

The Planning Elements for Craven Community College are built on the foundation of the comprehensive Mission – Mission Statement, Vision, Core Values and Strategic Goals – but then extend those elements into the more pragmatic, action-oriented, time-based and analytical outcomes and incremental directions.  These elements include:  Planning Analyses/Reports, Planning Assumptions, Unit/Center/Department Mission Statements, Strategic Priorities and Unit/Center Department Actions.

The materials cited below refer to the working description of the process and the most recently completed Long Range Plan completed in 2007.

Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning

Long Range Plan 2007 – 2012

Long Range Plan 2007 – 2012 Appendices

Department of Research and Planning

Mission Statement

The Department's Mission is to progressively contribute to the strategic planning, policy formulation and decision-making processes of Craven Community College by advancing and providing timely and accurate quantitative and qualitative information, analyses and summary reports, and by providing leadership in Strategic Planning, Institutional Effectiveness, mission attainment, quality enhancement and accountability.  

Functions

Strategic Planning

1. Provide leadership and administrative support for the College’s multi-year and annual strategic planning processes, including development of component elements of the Strategic Plan;
2. Provide demographic, external and internal environmental scanning, market research information and other analyses to enable and advance strategic and operational planning; and
3. Further the efforts of units/centers/departments in formulating their strategic and operational planning goals and actions and in addressing program/process effectiveness and goal attainment.

Institutional Effectiveness

4. Serve as a primary informational resource for the ongoing processes of Institutional Effectiveness and total quality management;
5. Support unit/center/department efforts at measuring student learning outcomes, completing accreditation studies and assuring continuous quality improvement; and
6. Respond to administrative and faculty requests for information and as a resource for survey formulation, methodology and assessment regarding students, faculty/staff and other populations.

Institutional Research

7. Advocate the use of longitudinal, comparative and point-in-time informational data to support policy development and administrative decision making; 
8. Assemble, analyze and disseminate institutional data and research reports in a proactive, objective and impartial manner, and advance the quality and efficiency of information flow;
9. Provide official data reports and survey completions to the North Carolina Community College System, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and other external agencies, while serving as a clearinghouse and assuring reliable and valid MIS data submissions; and
10. Support professional growth of faculty/staff in research, planning and assessment, fostering open and informed communications, analyses and collaborations.

Definitions

Strategic Planning includes activities such as environmental scanning, needs assessments, conducting focus groups, facilitating SWOT analysis, working with individuals and groups to develop an institutional strategic plan, developing sets of college goals and outcomes, monitoring institutional goal-related activities and work plans, working with planning groups to prioritize budgets for new initiatives, preparing progress reports and training multiple levels of staff about the planning process.  Typical products of Strategic Planning include College/Unit Mission/Vision statements, Strategic Goals, Planning Assumptions, Core Values, Annual Priorities and Environmental Scans.

Institutional Effectiveness is a term coined by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1989 to arrive at a degree of institutional consistency in matters of demonstration of quality and effectiveness.  Institutional Effectiveness defines the systematic processes of academic program/services/unit outcomes determination and assessment, benchmark clarification and use of the results for improvement of the quality and effectiveness of those programs/services/units and of student learning, especially in the context of affirmation of accreditations and attention to state and national reporting standards.  Typical products of Institutional Effectiveness include program evaluation/review reports, state/federal reports, student skill/goal attainment and various data-driven system reports.

Institutional Research includes applied or non-theoretical research, analyses and data/information extraction, description and projection conducted within the college and disseminated to provide information in direct support of planning, policy formation, accountability, resource allocation, critical thinking and decision making at collegewide, divisional and unit levels.  Typical products of Institutional Research include:  FTE/ enrollment reports, grade distributions, course/degree completions, trend analyses, student/faculty demographic and attrition studies, fact book, research summary notes, follow-up survey reports and faculty load reports. 

Publications

College Fact Book 2003 - 2008

Surveys

• Graduate Follow-Up (Completers) Survey*
  Anonymously collected information from prior year graduates.  Data collected pertains to goal accomplishment and the quality of our programs.  It also provides us with college continuation and/or career outcome data needed by the North Carolina Community College System for the Completers Survey report, and the employers to include in deploying the Employer Satisfaction Survey.

• Graduate (Exit) Survey
  Collected as the student is applying for graduation.  Name is included only as a means to include the highest degree earned by each student.  (Many students receive multiple awards.)  Data collected is the same as above except does not include college continuation and/or career plans.  This data can also be included in the Completers Survey report.

• Services Review Surveys
  Internal data collected to provide a framework to make positive changes in the services provided by Craven Community College to currently enrolled/employed students, faculty and staff.

• Non-Returning (Non-Completers) Students Survey*
  Anonymously collected information from students enrolled previous fall semester who did not return the current fall semester (excluding graduates.)  Questions pertain to the student’s reason for not returning and about the quality of our services.

• Employer Satisfaction Survey*
  Gives employers the opportunity to share their overall satisfaction with Craven Community College graduates they have employed.  Questions pertain to job-related knowledge and skills, communication, problem solving skills, etc.  Employers included are taken from the Graduate Follow-Up surveys. 

*Data from these surveys is tied to the North Carolina Performance Measures and Standards.  Colleges that meet the given standard measures are awarded Performance Funding.

Links

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data Systems:  Primary source for data on all colleges and universities in the United States, including an Executive Peer Tool which allows comparisons between a focus college and peer institutions:
www.nces.ed.gov/ipeds
www.nces.ed.gov/ipedspas/expt

Statistical Abstract of Higher Education in North Carolina:  Primary source of statistical data for institutions in North Carolina, including past and current academic year information.  Years include 2004-05 through 2008-09 and as related to enrollment, degrees, faculty, admissions, financial aid.
UNC-GA Statistical Abstract

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