COMPREHENSIVE STANDARD CS M16:

The institution identifies expected outcomes for its educational programs and its administrative and educational support services; assesses whether it achieves these outcomes; and provides evidence of improvement based on analysis of those results.

Expected outcomes for educational programs, administrative units, and educational support units are identified in the Collin County Community College District (CCCCD) planning process. CCCCD adopted a new planning model four years ago with the arrival of a new President.

Under the new planning process (described in Core Requirement 5), an institutional-level triennial strategic plan is developed that focuses the District’s efforts on a limited number of strategic goals. The first set of strategic goals under the new process was developed during 1999-2000 for fiscal years 2001-2003 (Reference 1).

The second three-year institutional strategic plan was developed during 2002-2003 for fiscal years 2004-2006 (Reference 2). Once the District’s strategic goals are approved by the Board of Trustees, the institution and its academic and administrative support units develop annual achievement indicators (objectives) that describe intended operational outcomes in support of the District’s mission and strategic goals (Reference 3). The system is designed to give administrators flexibility in division and unit-level planning. Units submit annual goals to the administration and the Institutional Research Office (Reference 4).

Units document the outcomes of operational goals each year in year-end status reports. In addition to the annual status reports, each unit undergoes a five-year evaluation process that documents linkages between each unit’s performance, relative to its own and the District’s mission, and achievement indicators. This process is detailed in the response to Core Requirement 5.

Learning outcomes are established for each educational program when it is first developed. The learning outcome component is an element of the CCCCD program development process described in Comprehensive Standards CS P1 and CS P2 and detailed in the Curriculum Advisory Board's (CAB) Curriculum Development Manual (Reference 5). Workforce education programs adhere to the learning outcomes stipulated in the Workforce Education Course Manual (WECM) at both the program and course levels (Reference 6).

As part of the program review process each five years, expected educational program outcomes are assessed, and, after analysis, evidence confirms the results are used to improve the program. A specific example of evaluation outcomes for an instructional program is provided (Reference 7).

Since no single instructional area has responsibility for the entire core curriculum, general education is evaluated outside the regular program evaluation processes. While the CAB has ongoing responsibility for review and approval of all curriculum changes, the General Education Outcomes (GEO) Forum was organized as a faculty committee to conduct a comprehensive review of and recommend changes in the CCCCD general education core curriculum and to recommend a process for assessing and documenting student learning outcomes in the general education core curriculum. A detailed description of the GEO Forum’s work is provided in the response to Comprehensive Standard CS P15.

Documentation of Outcomes

CCCCD actual and expected outcomes are documented in its planning status reports at both mid-year (Reference 8) and year-end (Reference 9) at the institutional level, and year-end only at the program level. Based on review of the status reports, achievement indicators are annually added, extended, modified, or deleted. To provide specific illustration, a small subset of achievement indicators and their outcomes have been extracted from the District’s 2002-2003 year-end status report (Reference 10). The entire year-end status reports for the District and for its divisions and programs are available (Reference 11) for more detailed review.

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