Overview
Similar to the six-year program review cycle for instructional programs, non-instructional program staff annually consider and discuss core elements of their work and both chronicle work being completed and, as necessary, establish goals and plans targeted at specific improvements. These discussions and resulting goals are based on the five institutional outcomes described below and grounded in the College’s commitment to equity and implementing anti-racist policy and practice (see Appendix A for definitions). The unique nature of each non-instructional program may lead to the addition of program-specific outcomes by which the program would like to further measure its progress and achievements.
Timeline
The annual review, discussion, and amendment by program staff of intended outcomes identified in the template constitutes the annual program review process over a five-year span. In Year 6, programs will synthesize the Years 1-5 information into a comprehensive program review document. This document will then be reviewed by an institutional program review team. Any recommendations will then be incorporated into the next cycle’s Year 1 program review.
Process
- Annual program review is not designed as a task to be assigned and completed by a set date. Similarly, it is not designed to just chronicle what the program does. Instead, it should facilitate program staff’s regular, on-going conversations about why and how the program approaches it work—and whether this work is accomplishing intended outcomes as effectively as possible. These discussions are intended to:
- Spur creative and critical thinking about the work we do;
- Encourage research into new and innovative approaches, and;
- Identify ways to assess effectiveness.
- This process will look different for each non-instructional program based on size, responsibilities, and delivery of services. The base template may be added to or adjusted at any time as subsequent annual discussions and review unfold. In the end, the program review process is not prescriptive, beyond asking each program to tie its discussions and goals to the broad institutional outcomes described below. Program staff are encouraged to view the program review process as an opportunity to set down daily work and come together to discuss the bigger-picture nature of our work and how to best ensure we are delivering on the College’s mission and our responsibilities to our students and community.
- Program staff may choose to meet for an initial review of the template and then reconvene for further, in-depth discussion about each element of the template in relation to the program’s work. Alternatively, program staff could choose to focus on one outcome/area in-depth, followed by the others in succession. There is no single prescriptive method for this conversation to occur and programs have flexibility in how to approach this work. It is important, however, that these discussions be documented, as they will become the foundation of successive year’s discussions and the sixth-year program review.
- Program leadership should focus staff on having thoughtful conversations based on the institutional outcomes. These discussions may head in a variety of directions based on the template and will likely lead to additional questions, the need for data to help answer those questions, and program goals based on those data (to be tied back to one or more intended outcomes).
Non-Instructional Program Review Template
Program Information
- Name of Program/Area:
- Program Purpose, Function, and/or Mission:
- Current Staffing (by position or organizational chart):
- Current Discretionary Budget:
- Overview of Program Responsibilities:
Alignment with Institutional Outcomes
- Engage program staff in a review of institutional non-instructional program outcomes listed below. These five outcomes were developed by the GRIT (Guidance, Resources, Integration, and Transformation) Committee based on the work of program staff in the 2018-2019 academic year. GRIT reviews institutional plans, program reviews, and data to ensure that equity and access are embedded in all plans and programs and that resources and efforts support overall student success. The institution-level non-instructional program outcomes are as follows:
Programs will align with COM’s current Strategic Plan and the Chancellor’s Office Vision for Success.
- Describe how the program aligns with COM’s current Strategic Plan and the Chancellor’s Office Vision for Success:
- Specific ways the program aligns with the Strategic Plan:
- Specific areas the program has identified where better alignment with the Strategic Plan is necessary:
- Specific ways the program aligns with the Vision for Success:
- Specific areas the program has identified where better alignment with the Vision for Success is necessary:
Programs will improve student access, retention, and/or success of all students.
- Specific practices being implemented within the program to improve student access, retention, and/or success:
- Established research, models, and/or framework informing the use of these practices:
- Intended objectives of each practice:
- Impact of these practices on access, retention, and/or success (please provide both quantitative and qualitative data):
- Findings about the impact of these practices:
- Challenges with the efficacy of these practices:
- Accomplishments based on these practices:
- Next steps with these practices based on items A-G:
Programs will improve student access, retention, and/or success of Black, African American, and Latinx students through the use of internal and external research and/or promising antiracist and equity practices.
- Specific antiracist and equity practices being implemented within the program to improve student access, retention, and/or the success of Black, African American, and Latinx students:
- Established research, models, and/or framework informing the use of these practices:
- Intended objectives of each practice:
- Impact of these practices on student access, retention, and/or the success for Black, African American, and Latinx students (please provide both quantitative and qualitative data):
- Findings about the impact of these practices:
- Challenges with the efficacy of these practices:
- Accomplishments based on these practices:
- Next steps with these practices based on items A-G:
Programs will assess the implementation of outcomes with regard to systemic racism.
- Summarize the review of activities, staff, and implementation of your program through the lens of disrupting systemic racism:
- For each item reviewed:
- Name the issue:
- Practice/plan to change:
- Data informing the practice/plan to change:
- Goal/intended impact of practice/plan to change:
Students will develop skills and knowledge that improve their ability to access, persist, and succeed in college.
- Elements of the program designed to help students develop skills and knowledge:
- Data used to determine skill/knowledge development:
- Challenges with ensuring skill/knowledge development:
- Accomplishments with ensuring skill/knowledge development:
- Next steps with advancing skill/knowledge development based on items A-D:
Additional Intended Outcomes
What will be most helpful to gauge whether our program is meeting (or moving toward meeting) the institutional outcomes (and any other program-specific outcomes we have developed)?
Goals
- List of goals based on intended outcomes:
- Resources necessary to achieve goals:
Appendix A
Definitions
Anti-Racist
Any policy, idea, or funding decision that produces or sustains racial equity in educational outcomes by intentionally dismantling systems and ideologies rooted in white supremacy. Anti-racism recognizes not all existing policies, ideas, or decisions are intentionally designed as racist, but may produce racial disparities in educational outcomes for historically marginalized groups nonetheless.
Equity
Recognizing the historical and systemic disparities in opportunity and outcomes and providing the resources necessary to address those disparities (Education Trust-West, n.d.).
Equity-Minded
The perspective or mode of thinking exhibited by practitioners who call attention to patterns of inequity in student outcomes. These practitioners are willing to take personal and institutional responsibility for the success of their students, and critically reassess their own practices. It also requires that practitioners are race-conscious and aware of the social and historical context of exclusionary practices in American education:
In order to understand and become “Equity-Minded”, it warrants that various practitioners (faculty, administration, staff, etc.) assess and acknowledge that their practices may not be working. It takes understanding inequities as a dysfunction of the various structures, policies, and practices that they can control. “Equity-Minded” practitioners question their own assumptions, recognize stereotypes that harm student success, and continually reassess their practices to create change. Part of taking on this framework is that institutions and practitioners become accountable for the success of their students and see racial gaps as their personal and institutional responsibility (Center for Urban Education, n.d.).
Appendix B
Timeline
Year 1
Use template to chronicle on-going discussions and progress with initial goal, which will lead to additional goals.
Years 3-5
Continue the process of data and goal review, discussion of progress, and development of subsequent goals.
Year 6
Synthesize documentation from Years 1-5 into a program review document, discuss feedback from the institutional program review team, and use this feedback to launch the next cycle.