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These recommendations of the consultants will serve as the basis for Phase IV of the Learning-Centered Initiative. A collegewide planning meeting will be conducted shortly after the SACS visit, at which time progress to date and findings from the SACS visiting team will be incorporated into the discussions. The result will be the creation of a new Strategic Learning Plan for the next three to five years. It is expected that new technology systems and strategies will emerge, based upon insights gained from Phase III, which will facilitate planning, budgeting, and assessment strategies beyond those currently conceived.
Documentation of Threshold Requirements Overview Valencia Community College continues to assess various aspects of its operations, as well as personnel throughout the College in relation to the Criteria. The ongoing analysis of strengths and weaknesses is conducted in relation to the College's strategic planning process. The SACS Compliance Audit Task Force was established Spring, 1999, and has begun its review of the College's compliance with the Criteria. The charge of this task force is to conduct the audit, compile needed documentation, and prepare the SACS report. A department chair has been given a special assignment to serve as director of the SACS Compliance Audit. The task force includes representatives from planning, institutional research, curriculum development, academic programs, information technology, student services, learning resources, and administrative services. The initial findings of this task force indicate that the College continues to be substantially in compliance with the Criteria and that there is adequate documentation to substantiate compliance. The task force has paid special attention to resources and processes that support the College's distance learning program in preparation for Valencia's participation in the statewide Distance Learning Substantive Change Review that will be conducted October 9-12, 2000. Institutional Effectiveness
The institution has in place a well-developed institutional effectiveness program. To implement its planning and evaluation process, the College has established a comprehensive approach that includes the Comprehensive Strategic Plan (CSP) and a variety of evaluation procedures to assess progress in achieving institutional goals and objectives. The strategic goals of the CSP address educational programs, educational support services, financial and physical resources, resource development, and administrative processes. The Institutional Studies Committee supports the process of assessment of effectiveness by coordinating and assisting, where appropriate, in selection, design, and use of evaluative instruments, including data, statistical indicators, studies, reports, surveys, and a variety of qualitative techniques. As information becomes available, the committee identifies, catalogues, and makes available on Valencia's website and in selected administrative offices, results and indicators. The committee also evaluates the effectiveness of the College's institutional research office. The College has established a comprehensive planning, management, and evaluation model that takes into account the resources and processes of education, such as faculty and staff qualifications, facilities, financial resources, learning resources, and other elements addressed in the Criteria. The College adopted this model initially in 1986, when it established its first CSP as an effective way to deal with a rapidly changing environment, and select the best strategies to ensure continuing growth, development, and renewal. The College expects full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment growth to continue to grow at a rate of 3-5% per year over the next five years. The President is the College's chief planner. Valencia's planning office is under the Vice President for Planning and Educational Services. A number of other offices support planning, including information technology, instittional research, resource development, marketing and media relations, college and community relations, technical education, and admissions and records. The planning, management, and evaluation system is composed of five stages: pre-planning, strategic planning, operational planning, management, and evaluation. While this model shows stages as sequential, various College units work concurrently on components within each stage. A description of each stage of the model follows: Pre-planning The pre-planning stage includes identification of planning resources, staff, facilities, equipment, planning strategies (planning for planning), data, databases, information, and software. The office of the Vice President for Planning and Educational Services serves as the focal point for coordinating College planning and evaluation activities. The institutional research and information technology offices provide databases and data for institutional reports the College regularly disseminates. Strategic Planning The strategic planning stage provides a long-range perspective to the process. As part of the periodic review of the statements of purpose, the Vision, Values, and Mission statements were examined in light of the Learning-Centered Initiative by over 200 faculty and staff in ten separate roundtable discussions in Spring, 2000. A strategic planning meeting on November 17-18, 2000, will use these statements in developing a new action agenda. This new strategic learning plan will document the College's long-range aspirations and action strategies to achieve them. Valencia's analysis processes involve identifying baseline data, performance gaps, and trends. The College collects this information by looking at the institution both externally and internally. To assess the external environment, the college identifies projections, trends, and issues. Projections deal with analyses of demographic and economic data and development of projected changes, using statitical trend-analysis techniques. Valencia gathers data from national, regional, state, and local sources. The College tracks current and emerging forces related to institutional goals that may impact the College. The President and his staff hold monthly strategy discussions on strategic directions and on current and emerging issues. The internal assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the College is a continuing process built around ongoing dissemination and evaluation of data and information. Under the direction of its new president, the College will conduct at least one collegewide strategic planning meeting each year. More than 100 people will attend these annual sessions, including representatives from the District Board of Trustees, administration, faculty, career service staff, and student body. Proposed new learning-centered goals and action strategies that will be used to establish a new Strategic Learning Plan this fall are provided in the Appendix.
In addition to learning-centered goals, which focus on programs and educational outcomes linked with services and operations, the College has developed a new set of student core competencies faculty considers important for Valencia's graduates to attain as part of its Learning-Centered Initiative. The development of a system to integrate these competencies into the curriculum will be one of the major goals of Valencia's strategic self-study over the next three years. Operational Planning The operational planning stage focuses on identifying measurable objectives, implementation strategies, and evaluation procedures. Objectives are measurable outcomes that can be implemented within one or more years. While the objectives may be either process- or product-oriented, this stage emphasizes measurable results. To categorize desired institutional results, the CSP format uses a legal numbering system for listing the strategic goals and measurable objectives. The College has identified strategic effectiveness indicators for each of the strategic goals. Data on these indicators and information about academic and administration accomplishments are published annually in the Strategic Indicators Report, which provides an overall assessment of progress toward the attainment of the strategic goals. The Collegewide Indicators Report, which includes 26 selected indicators, is distributed to faculty and staff at the beginning of each academic year. Assessment of students falls into five major categories, based on the Developmental Advising Model: postsecondary transition, introduction to college, progression to degree, graduation, and lifelong learning. Postsecondary assessments include college readiness, Tech Prep assessments, Honors, and scholarship assessments. Upon entry into the College, all degree seeking students must complete the CPT entry-level assessment or provide scores from other acceptable assessments. The College uses these scoes to place students in appropriate English, mathematics, and reading College Preparatory (remedial) courses, as appropriate. Valencia also administers an admissions survey to students at the time they take the CPT. The entry-level student assessment process evaluates the current status of entering students to ensure proper placement. Student progression assessments include course grades, College Preparatory exit examinations, communications department examinations, the College-Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST), a current student usage/satisfaction survey, graduation survey, alumni survey, placement data, and transfer data. Faculty assign course grades in all credit courses conducted at the College. The College administers examinations to all students at the completion of College Prep Math II, College Prep English II, College Prep Reading II, and Freshman Composition I. Students must pass this examination to pass the course, regardless of their status in the course to that point. Data are shared with faculty from the results of these examinations and are used to strengthen teaching and learning processes. To assess graduates' mastery of the new student core competencies, the College uses graduate and alumni surveys. The College is developing an additional exit assessment process using student portfolios. A survey of good teaching and learning practices is being considered. The State of Florida requires that prior to completing the A.A. degree, each student pass all four CLAST subtests (i.e., English language, essay, mathematics, and reading). The state analyzes and shares with faculty in each department data from this test. Students also receive an item analysis that identifies their weak areas and recommends steps to correct their deficiencies. The follow-up or lifelong learning assessment process includes a number of specific components. Valencia has tracked for a number of years placements of A.S. and A.A. degree students and disseminated thee data to appropriate departments (Statistical History). The College tracks transfer data of students to the state university system in terms of GPA by institution and program, completions, and hours to completion. The College also tracks transfers and completion rates of students who transfer to the University of Central Florida (UCF) in greater detail, since more than 83 percent of Valencia graduates who continue their education at a state university transfer to UCF. Valencia also receives feedback from employers of completers from the Florida Education and Training Placement Information Program (FETPIP). The College periodically administers industry needs surveys and presents these data to appropriate departments for review. These surveys provide information regarding changing industry needs and projections. Valencia incorporates the results of alumni and industry surveys into its institutional effectiveness reviews and uses them in planning for new and expanded programs. To comply with state rules, Valencia conducts program reviews for A.S., A.A.S., and the A.A. degree programs at least every five years. The College uses information from program reviews not only at the program level, but also at the institutional level to make recommendations for strengthening individual programs. The President plans to allocate funds to address program recommendations, where appropriate. Valencia conducts employee performance evaluations for all employees. The District Board of Trustees evaluates the President. Other administrators, faculty, career service, and other professional staff are also evaluated annually. Faculty assessments of supervisors and other administrative staff are part of this process. A collegewide committee of faculty and administrators is currently reviewing the procedures and instruments used for tenure, evaluation, and assessment of faculty.
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