A New Era in Accreditation



Try not to be jealous, but this week I am doing something that few at NSC have ever done, and perhaps few more will ever be able to experience. Yes, that's right, I am at the annual convening of the Northwest Commission on Colleges & Universities (a.k.a., the "NWCCU" and our accrediting body). Sarcasm aside, this year's meeting is a rather important one. First, it's the last meeting for NSC before we are neck deep in the development of our next - and culminating - accreditation report. At this time next year, we will have done much of the core writing and preparation for Year 7 self-evaluation report, which describes how well virtually every aspect of the College is functioning. Even now, guided chiefly by Gwen Sharp, a lot of the good work is underway, including the outcomes assessment of the Core Curriculum and degree programs, and an evaluation of our progress along the key metrics included in our Year One report on Nevada State's mission and core themes.

Second, the NWCCU welcomed new leadership this year, and I am very curious to see how this affects our experience as an institution. Already, our accrediting body is implementing changes that aspire to enhance the accreditation process, including the development of new committees (e.g., an Accreditation Evaluator Committee that recruits and trains the folks who evaluate colleges), a renewed investment in technology, and the creation of a larger gap between our Year Seven and subsequent Year One report (which is a life-saver, from my perspective). With this effort to enhance the process, I believe the commission also may elevate its expectations of what institutions should be achieving, and we of course want to be ready. The workshops today and tomorrow should provide critical insight into any new developments.

Concurrent Enrollment at ECTA

You'll be hearing a little more about our partnership with ECTA (the East Career and Technical Academy) over the next few months. ECTA is the second high school (after SECTA) to work with NSC on our Teacher Academy initiative. This initiative, led by Dean Potthoff in SoE, addresses Nevada's teacher shortage by encouraging high school students to consider teaching as a career. Students in the program take NSC education classes (such as EDU 250 and EDU 206) at ECTA and participate in field experiences set in K-12 schools. We hope that these students will have a great experience and will consider earning their education degree with NSC. Notably, ECTA is a career academy, but the students are remarkably high-performing and learn college-readiness skills in addition to their career training. 97% of the graduates will attend college. 

As an additional incentive for these students to come to NSC, we will allow ECTA students to take core classes as well, such as English composition and history. These classes are called "concurrent enrollment" because students earn high school and college credit concurrently. Our practice has been to hire masters-qualified instructors at ECTA to lead the classes. 

What does this mean for NSC? It means more students in high schools will be exposed to NSC classes and see NSC as a viable college option. If the program goes as planned, it will mean more ECTA students coming our way and more teachers for Nevada.

What does this mean for you? We are committed to following the standards established by the NACEP, which ensure that "courses offered in the high school are of the same quality and rigor as the courses offered on-campus at the sponsoring college." To support this goal, we do short, in-person interviews with all concurrent enrollment instructors, and you may be asked to participate. In addition, we're working on developing faculty liaisons, who will observe a concurrent enrollment class at least once-a-year and provide additional guidance if needed. 

We're starting to circulate a Concurrent Enrollment Policy, which provides additional details and guidance. If you have questions, please contact me - I'm happy to tell you more about this partnership.  

The Tim Christenson Inclusive Initiative

We are extremely excited to be moving forward with our pilot of the Tim Christenson Inclusive Initiative, a 6-week summer bridge and support program for incoming freshman students who are "diverse learners" - students who are diagnosed with a learning disability and/or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. This program is based on the vision of a current student, Tim Christenson, who noted that NSC's diversity initiatives aimed at improving college success for underrepresented groups had not traditionally included students with disabilities. Tim has worked with our DRC Director, Sandi Patton, and myself throughout the past year to highlight various challenges facing diverse learners in higher education. He also researched best practices and various support programs across the country to help inform our pilot program. 

The program is designed to improve student success markers and career readiness by addressing the individual and systemic challenges associated with the transition to higher education for students with disabilities, as well as promoting a sense of belonging and inclusion to increase student engagement across all departments on campus. The program will include our college success course (ALS 101), which will be tailored to meet the needs of diverse learners, training in assistive technology, peer mentoring, updated psychological testing, and academic support services. NSC will also collaborate with community partners to promote self-advocacy, financial literacy, career readiness, and community engagement. 

 

We are very excited about providing updated psychological testing for students in the program. Many students served by the DRC have outdated testing results that may not be an accurate reflection of their current abilities and academic needs. Psychological testing will help inform the accommodations process, but most importantly, it will provide insight into individual student strengths, weaknesses, and preferred learning strategies. 

I'd like to thank Sandi, Tim, and Ande Christenson for all of their research and work on this project throughout the past year. Andrea Martin, Janice Le-Nguyen, and Anthony Morrone have been invaluable in helping us navigate the logistics of application development, admissions requirements, and financial aid assistance. Lastly, I'd like to thank Myra Infante Sheridan, our FYE lecturer, who will be the primary instructor for the ALS course this summer. Sandi and Tim are doing targeted outreach to specific high schools and school counselors and also working with the CCSD Transitions Team to recruit eligible students. If you have any questions or would like to collaborate on this project, please contact me to discuss.