Summary of ACICS Accreditation Workshop

San Diego, October 10, 2011

Carolyn Prager

This will summarize the major changes required as a result of the ACICS Accreditation Workshop. The discussion below does not include Program Level Standards for Student Acheivement discussed in a previous memo and e-mail.

DOE Deferred ACICS Accreditation: The DOE “cited” ACICS and deferred its accreditation for one year. Many of the changes discussed below appear to emanate from DOE pressure.

Other Changes May Be Coming: Be alert for continuing changes required by ACICS yet to be formulated or published. The September, 2011 Accreditation Criteria distributed at the Workshop are already out of date. ACICS Workshop leaders stated that ACICS has not yet had time to update everything they need to change.

Cognitive Dissonance: ACICS workshop leadership exhibited a great deal of “cognitive dissonance” deriving from a changing accreditation role. They have started to use the language about “standards of good practice” based on external criteria (i.e., not only as stated in ACICS Criteria). It was evident that the leadership is clearly under a mandate to change from simply “auditing” quantitative data for “compliance.”

This means looking at qualitative as well as quantitative program elements based on “standards of good practice” in postsecondary education in general.

	Recommendations
1. Faculty Development Plans: Now must include both in-service and professional growth activities	Get inexpensive memberships in NYS TESOL for ESL teachers. Have all Computer teachers join the no-cost State organization for computer teachers (I previously signed up Enrique). Even more will be needed for CEA—they are big on professional development.
2. Chief Financial Aid Officer Development Plan: The Financial Aid Officer (DVF) must have an annual professional development Plan	Will do one for you.
3. Out-of-Class Assignments and Course Prerequisites: Syllabi will have to contain outside assignments and course prerequisites. Syllabi must also contain hours of homework students will be required to do. DOE actually requires a minimum number of hours. I must review May memo to field with the formula for distribution of hours. ACICS site visitors will: · look for the memo to faculty and the written policy statements about homework assignments · review syllabi for this, · review evidence of actual homework, · question students about homework assignments, and · evaluate the relationship of course prerequisites to course content.	Syllabi must be considerably revised both for ACICS and for CEA. For CEA, syllabi must include specific measureable language learning objectives. For ACICS, syllabi must include with homework assignments and hours. Course prerequisites need to be better stated. Some implementation stratgies: a. Revise syllabi. b. Memo to faculty directs them to to assign homeowork from the revised syllabus. c. Homework policy written into in a revised Faculty Handbook. d. Homework assignments monitored by periodically asking faculty to produce student homework for our files. e. Relate ESL course prerequisites to non-ESL course objectives (especially in an English-Plus modality).
4. IEP now the CEP (Campus Effectiveness Plan)
5. Teacher Preparation/Credentials: Several months ago, ACICS revised its Faculty preparation requirements for non-degree programs. Business faculty must now have a degree in the field or at least two years of related work experience. ACICS will review faculty credentials more carefully than in the past. A State license may no longer be sufficient evidence of adequate preparation. In particular, they will look at the stated degree fields in the Catalog and how they match with the fields the faculty members actually teach.	5. A really serious issue.
6. Faculty Credentials in Catalog and Faculty Credential Evaluation Schools only need to list faculty members “qualifying” degrees in the field(s) they teach.	6. ACICS is only concerned about the relationship of the teaching degree to the subject(s) taught. Therefore, schools do not need to list non-pertinent degrees in the Catalog. Also, schools need only provide a credential evaluation for foreign degrees for the degree(s) listed in the Catalog.
7. Administrators’ degree credentials in Catalog and Documentation	7. If a school lists administrator degree credentials in the Catalog, they must have documentation of those degrees on file.
8. Lab and lecture hours. Cannot be all one or the other for subjects that require hands-on. This appears to have been a serious DOE concern.	8. Another significant concern. Bound to be an issue for CEA as well as ACICS.