Future directions for Planning and Assessment

At its summer 2006 retreat, the Craven Community College cabinet took a long look at the current planning and assessment process.  Under the direction of consultants Dick Alfred, author of Managing the Big Picture in Colleges and Universities: From Tactics to Strategy and co-author of Core Indicators of Institutional Effectiveness, and Pat Carter from the University of Michigan, the college is now heading toward a simpler, more easily understood at all levels, process. The process remains centered around student learning.

The college's new strategic plan will begin with its mission and include annual review by the Institutional Effectiveness Committee and CCC Board of Trustees. At its recent retreat, college leadership defined the college's purpose as "Educate, Empower, Enrich." This has long been the statement of core values for Craven's business and information technology department; in fact, it is a part of most business/IT mission statements. The three words are also a integral part of the college's vision.

The college cabinet decided to retain the two-year planning period but to change the elements of planning for a simpler, easier to follow, plan. Environmental scanning for the new strategic plan will begin soon after the beginning of the semester. With plans to invite all advisory committees to a program review plan meeting, the cabinet determined to use that time to focus on information-gathering for future college direction, as well.

Craven is also in the process of developing other external assessment tools, including surveys for high school students and other stakeholders. The college will involve focus groups of students and potential students, as well. All scanning tools will be identified during the August and September Institutional Effectiveness Committee meetings and put into place soon after development.

The college plans to look at its internal capacity early in 2007, identifying gap areas between what the community (stakeholders) want and what the college can deliver. The model for the new planning process, seen below, incorporates budgeting and assessment throughout the process, beginning with strategic goals (the college will reduce its current 57 strategic priorities to six to eight strategic goals for the biennium).

The IEC will identify a timeline at its Aug. 23 meeting and determine what core indicators of effectiveness, based on Dr. Alfred's book, will be appropriate. After the environmental scan and gap analysis, expected to be completed by December 2006, CCC will refine its long-range goals within the context of Educate, Empower and Enrich and set the six to eight strategic goals for the next two years.

The campus community will be informed at all steps along the way, and each area will have the opportunity in early spring 2007 to develop critical actions in line with the strategic goals. From those action steps, individual units will develop more operational goals, and individual goals will continue to be developed and assessed as part of the annual appraisal process.

The entire 2007-09 strategic plan should be ready for Board of Trustee approval in April. The college will then tie all action steps to potential budget, identify final assessment measures, and have the plan ready for implementation by July 1. If North Carolina's budget processes stay as they are, the college will still get its final financial picture after the start of the fiscal year, but this plan will enable the entire campus to know the priorities for that funding and adjust based on final figures.

The plan will be assessed in the spring in time to inform the 2008-09 budget picture and refine goals and action steps for the second year of the biennium. At this point, the process should tie in well with services and program review enhancement efforts currently in place. Craven's strategic plan is based on educating, empowering and enriching students and the community.

The plan is set up to provide budgeting based on prior year and current program review processes. For example, in 2007-08, the college will have completed review of the first 13 curriculum programs. Areas of concern may need future resource allocations; some of these will have been identified as critical action steps in the planning process. Resources will also be allocated to the program review processes for spring 2008 for that cohort of 12 degree, diploma, and certificate programs.

Resources will also be allocated based on prior year and current issues identified by services review in October of each year. Mid-year (around February/March) budget adjustments will allow for some same-year funding to be allocated to issues not previously identified in the prior-year planning period.

The general education outcomes assessment will also play a role in budget allocation. As issues are identified in students' attainment of the general education core, resources will be placed to improve processes leading to student learning.

Part IIa - Documentation to support change from research-based planning

Part IIb - Institution-wide Planning

Part III - Services and Program Review Processes

Part IV - A history of planning and data-driven decision making

Part V - Future direction of strategic planning

Back to Focused Report CR2.5