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Institutional Effectiveness Plan

Institutional Effectiveness Plan

Learn about HACC's Institutional Effectiveness Plan: March 2013 –July 2014.

 

What is the purpose of the plan? 

We designed this Institutional Effectiveness Plan to:

  • Establish institutional practice goals.
  • Define the systems and processes we use for assessments.
  • Ensure we use assessment results when making decisions.
  • Establish and meet goals.

 

What is HACC doing to improve assessments? 

Our goal is to build a culture of assessment. We want to base our decisions, practices and planning on evidence.

We use assessments to determine if we are meeting our goals. To improve how we use assessments, we:

  • Created an Institutional Effectiveness Task Force. This Force determines prioritized action items. These action items ensure we have effective assessment practices.
  • Purchased a state-of-the-art assessment management system (TK20). This is a repository, tracking and reporting tool.

 

What is the plan?

We will revise and update the plan in future years. This specific plan outlines HACC's priorities and focus areas for March 2013 to July 2014.

The plan states that: 

1. We will publish and review college-wide goals to ensure:

  • We established them using a transparent process. This process will involve all stakeholders.
  • They align with HACC's 2012–2015 Strategic Plan.
  • They conform to best practices and standards that TK20 establishes.

 

2. We will develop protocols for planning assessments. We will also develop protocols for how we analyze assessment findings. These protocols will:

  • Clearly show how establishing baseline data is important.
  • Show that defining and using benchmarks is critical.
  • Show that we value internal and external data sources. This includes third-party resources and perspectives.

 

3. We will review and redefine the assessment reporting process and supporting structure. We will ensure they:

  • Appropriately involve all stakeholders.
  • Are available to all stakeholders.
  • Define accountability and review processes.
  • Provide meaningful and timely support to reporting units.
  • Provide a parallel process for both academic and non-academic areas.
  • Use economies of scale to minimize or institutionalize shadow systems.

 

4. Assessment practices will become a primary training and professional development focus. We will:

  • Provide all areas of HACC with training in assessment best practices. This training will include ways to determine meaningful metrics. It will also include how to optimize data-collection processes.
  • Align assessment best practices with TK20 training.

 

5. We will revise and update relevant Administrative Policies (APs). These APs define assessment planning and processes. We will:

  • Use a parallel process for both academic and non-academic areas.
  • Define desired levels of performance.
  • Ensure planning and processes align with the best practices that TK20 defines.

 

6. We will redesign the budgeting process. This will allow us to:

  • More effectively use assessment findings when making budgetary decisions.
  • Budget decisions to more closely match the priorities of the HACC 2014–2015 Strategic Plan.
  • Model and consider "what-if" scenarios when planning.

 

7. We will showcase how we use assessment findings. We will highlight how we make improvements. We will also outline how we use these assessment findings to make better decisions. We will:

  • Deliver on our promise of transparency.
  • Showcase best practices.
  • Reward innovation in assessment activities and outcomes.
  • Encourage communication and creativity.
  • Fully engage HACC's community.
  • Build a culture of assessment.
  • Use demographic and market trends as predictive indicators.