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WASC Materials on General Education, Assessment, and Accreditation

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Excerpts from the WASC Standards, WASC 2001 Handbook on Accreditation , pages 17-41

Standard 1. Defining Institutional Purposes and Ensuring Educational Objectives

  • Institutional Purposes
  • Integrity

The institution defines its purposes and establishes educational objectives aligned with its purposes and character. It has a clear and conscious sense of its essential values and character, its distinctive elements, its place in the higher education community, and its relationship to society at large. Through its purposes and educational objectives, the institution dedicates itself to higher learning, the search for truth, and the dissemination of knowledge. The institution functions with integrity and autonomy.

[Criteria for Review]

1.2. Educational objectives are clearly recognized throughout the institution and are consistent with stated purposes. The institution has developed indicators and evidence to ascertain the level of achievement of its purposes and educational objectives.

Guideline: The institution has published educational objectives that are consistent with its purposes.

[Questions for Institutional Engagement]

2. How does the institution ensure that its institutional purposes and educational objectives are regularly reviewed and modified?

3. To what extent has the institution developed and begun to use indicators and sources of evidence to determine whether its educational objectives have been achieved?

Standard 2. Achieving Educational ObjectivesThrough Core Functions

  • Teaching and Learning
  • Scholarship and Creative Activity
  • Support for Student Learning

The institution achieves its institutional purposes and attains its educational objectives through the core functions of teaching and learning, scholarship and creative activity, and support for student learning. It demonstrates that these core functions are performed effectively and that they support one another in the institution's efforts to attain educational effectiveness.

[Criteria for Review]

2.2. All degrees-undergraduate and graduate-awarded by the institution are clearly defined in terms of entry-level requirements and in terms of levels of student achievement necessary for graduation that represent more than simply an accumulation of courses or credits.

Baccalaureate programs engage students in an integrated course of study of sufficient breadth and depth to prepare them for work, citizenship, and a fulfilling life. These programs also ensure the development of core learning abilities and competencies including, but not limited to, college-level written and oral communication; college-level quantitative skills; information literacy; and the habit of critical analysis of data and argument. In addition, baccalaureate programs actively foster an understanding of diversity; civic responsibility; the ability to work with others; and the capability to engage in lifelong learning.

Baccalaureate programs also ensure breadth for all students in the areas of cultural and aesthetic, social and political, as well as scientific and technical knowledge expected of educated persons in this society.

Finally, students are required to engage in an in-depth, focused, and sustained program of study as part of their baccalaureate programs.

Guideline: The institution has a program of General Education that is integrated throughout the curriculum, including at the upper division level, consisting of a minimum of 45 semester credit hours (or the equivalent), together withsignificant study in depth in a given area of knowledge (typically described in terms of a major).

Guideline: Competencies required for graduation are reflected in course syllabi for both General Education and the major.

2.3.      The institution's expectations for learning and student attainment are clearly reflected in its academic programs and policies. These include the organization and content of the institution's curricula; admissions and graduation policies; the organization and delivery of advisement; the use of its library and information resources; and (where applicable) experience in the wider learning environment provided by the campus and/or co-curriculum.

2.4        The institution's expectations for learning and student attainment are developed and widely shared among its members (including faculty, students, staff, and where appropriate, external stakeholders). The institution's faculty takes collective responsibility for establishing, reviewing, fostering, and demonstrating the attainment of these expectations.

2.7.      In order to improve program currency and effectiveness, all programs offered by the institution are subject to review, including analyses of the achievement of the program's learning objectives and outcomes. Where appropriate, evidence from external constituencies such as employers and professional societies is included in such reviews.

Guideline: The institution incorporates in its assessment of educational objectives results with respect to student achievement, including program completion, license examination, and placement rates results.

2.12.    The institution ensures that all students understand the requirements of their academic programs and receive timely, useful, and regular information and advising about relevant academic requirements.

Standard 4. Creating an Organization Committed to Learning and Improvement

  • Strategic Thinking and Planning
  • Commitment to Learning and Improvement

The institution conducts sustained, evidence-based, and participatory discussions about how effectively it is accomplishing its purposes and achieving its educational objectives. These activities inform both institutional planning and systematic evaluations of educational effectiveness. The results of institutional inquiry, research, and data collection are used to establish priorities at different levels of the institution, and to revise institutional purposes, structures, and approaches to teaching, learning, and scholarly work.

[Criteria for Review]

4.1. The institution periodically engages its multiple constituencies in institutional reflection and planning processes which assess its strategic position; articulate priorities; examine the alignment of its purposes, core functions and resources; and define the future direction of the institution. The institution monitors the effectiveness of the implementation of its plans and revises them as appropriate.

4.3. How does the institution ensure that the information it collects and maintains about itself is current, accurate, and of the right kinds? How effectively does it assess its capacity to analyze this information and use the results of such assessments for improvements?

4.4. The institution employs a deliberate set of quality assurance processes at each level of institutional functioning, including new curriculum and program approval processes, periodic program review, ongoing evaluation, and data collection. These processes involve assessments of effectiveness, track results over time, and use the results of these assessments to revise and improve structures and processes, curricula, and pedagogy.

4.6. Leadership at all levels is committed to improvement based on the results of the processes of inquiry, evaluation and assessment used throughout the institution. The faculty take responsibility for evaluating the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process and use the results for improvement. Assessments of the campus environment in support of academic and co-curricular objectives are also undertaken and used, and are incorporated into institutional planning.

Guideline: The institution has clear, well established policies and practices for gathering and analyzing information that leads to a culture of evidence and improvement.

4.7. The institution, with significant faculty involvement, engages in ongoing inquiry into the processes of teaching and learning, as well as into the conditions and practices that promote the kinds and levels of learning intended by the institution. The outcomes of such inquiries are applied to the design of curricula, the design and practice of pedagogy, and to the improvement of evaluation means and methodology.

[Questions for institutional engagement]

  1. How are stakeholders involved in the assessment of the effectiveness of educational programs? How is their feedback disseminated and used to inform improvement?
  2. In what ways does the institution review the effectiveness of its quality assurance processes to assure its alignment with institutional priorities and educational objectives?
  3. To what extent does the institution explore assumptions that shape the design and organization of its educational objectives and programs, and generate new approaches to teaching and learning?
  4. In what ways does the institution identify effective approaches to assessing teaching and learning within the institution and at other institutions. How does it incorporate these practices to increase the institutional capacity to engage issues of educational effectiveness?
  5. To what extent does the institution have a collective vision of educational attainment that is clearly stated and widely understood?
  6. In what ways does the institution reinforce a culture of evidence throughout the organization?