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Criterion Committees:
Criterion 1
Criterion 2
Criterion 3
Criterion 4
Criterion 5

The first meeting of the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Criterion 3 self-study committee was October 16th. In attendance were Mike Mitchell, Chair; John Arle; Liz O'Brien; Dana Fladhammer; Joy Fitzpatrick; Don Richardson; Ofelia Canez; Kory Merkel; Pam Rogers; Marian Gibney; Kristin Anderson; Wilbert Nelson; and self-study co-chairs Marian Tadano and Brent Jamison.

Both Brent and Marian offered remarks, indicating the scope and responsibility of the entire HLC self-study project. Everything the self-study project does should be connected to the college's mission statement and values. We need to understand our mission and assure that all we do supports that mission. Since assessment is important, all assessment must be documented, and everyone should be involved in the process. There are five criteria in all; student academic achievement is very important.
The site visit team will need evidence that Criterion 3 has been satisfied. Since this includes everyone, we must also educate the entire campus to this process.

Marian indicated that Criterion 3 is probably the most over-arching of the five criteria. It is directly connected with the college's accreditation; since we confer degrees, we must assure everyone that the degrees are valuable. This also includes measuring courses in programs and degrees against the standards of the HLC. It comes down to teaching and learning which, of course, includes the faculty. Marian mentioned that over 200 adjuncts had been released in Texas as they did not meet minimum qualifications. Does this mean that the courses they taught are jeopardized?

By extension Criterion 3 will include retention, advisement, and student personal needs.
Then, demonstrating an oxymoron, Mike apologized to everyone for including him/her on the committee and thanked everyone, too. He stated that Don Richardson has agreed to record the meeting notes for the group. Don will also serve as the Criterion 3 writer later in the process.

After input from everyone, the committee agreed to meet again Friday, November 7th at noon. The location will be announced. The December meeting will be the 9th at 2:30. The committee will attempt to set the spring meeting schedule at the December meeting.

As chair of the committee, Mike offered an overview and definition of the task. Criterion 3 concerns student learning and effective teaching. What the committee will need to do is gather evidence to prove that both are occurring. Thus, we need to identify the types of evidences needed, collect them, and assess them. However, the HLC does not dictate methods or approach; they simply measure whether the institution-Phoenix College-is doing what it says it is doing. Thus, we will need the goals of every department. Criterion 3A mentions clearly stated goals, and these make assessment possible. Are competencies stated? This means for courses, programs, degrees, and departments. What assessments are being made? We will need to demonstrate a history of following these goals and assessments.

Mike indicated that he would send copies of his Power Point presentation to all committee members.
When the process is completed, the results will be made available to everyone. All results will be posted on the internet website and made available to the site visitation team.

Effective teaching will call for evidence, the Distinguished Teacher of the Year award, for example. In addition we may need to include instructor evaluations by the deans, student-based evaluations, department chair evaluation, and perhaps self-evaluations.
Effective learning environments must include all students, no matter the location or the delivery method; this is to be all-inclusive.
Learning resources include the library, financial center, the learning center, the computer center, writing labs, advisement, etc.
Some key questions include the following: What are we doing? How do we go about doing this (assessment)? When will we be finished? The process must include data collection and data organization. Thus, people will be assigned to X number of departments to make sure we get the information. We do not do the measures ourselves.

We need to determine the methodology at our next meeting. It could be that the entire committee looks at everything, or sub-committees look at specific sections or parts, or we list all tasks and sub-divide the tasks and assign them to individuals or groups.
The time frame is as follows:

December 2004 Date retrieval completed
May, 2005 Our report out of committee
Fall, 2005 Report to steering committee
Fall, 2005 Report submitted to HLC
Spring, 2006 Site visit

Respectfully submitted,
Don Richardson