CONTRA COSTA COLLEGE INTEGRATED
PLANNING MODEL WITH REVIEW CYCLES FALL 2008
Purpose
The attached diagram represents considerable dialogue among members of the Research and Planning Committee, Executive Staff as well as the President’s Cabinet concerning how the college integrates all of the major aspects of its organizational planning into a clear dynamic model. As a dynamic model, this diagram should be viewed as ever changing as time progresses, however, the directional flow or relationship to each entity (i.e. program review, student learning outcomes, unit plans, strategic initiatives, college-wide plans and mission statement) follow an established route based on proscribed cycles of review. The purpose of the diagram is to demonstrate how the college seeks to integrate all of these entities towards addressing its mission which stresses a high quality of teaching and learning in the areas of vocational, basic skills and transfer education and at the same time maintain excellent student support systems.
Review Cycles
Each entity in the diagram has its own review cycle which is connected by relationships to the others. Each cycle requires a planning process which integrates current goals and priorities with the mission of the college. All of the entities are expected to coordinate their planning and activities with those of the others. This integration relies primarily on the college’s commitment to shared governance and the various constituent representatives who in turn, communicate the substance of these plans and designs back to their respective groups. The entities are connected by relationships which are based on coordination of information so that ideas and plan elements are not developed by themselves.
The review cycles require assessment and validation processes which evaluate progress toward goal achievement and provide feedback which assists in the refinement of plans and directions for each of the entities.
Mission Statement
The mission statement represents a stable document that defines what the institution is and its reason for existence. Mission statements are evaluated on the accreditation cycle. The statement becomes the conscience of the institution since it includes the beliefs and purpose of the college and its employees.
Strategic Initiatives
The Initiatives, developed by the college every five years, establish a broad framework for planning at all levels and within each unit of the institution. Within the framework, each unit must engage in a planning process. All program reviews involve faculty, managers, classified and students which form the validation committee. Clear goals and intended outcomes are developed for the college overall as well as for each of its instructional, student service and administrative programs. Academic and Career Technical Education Student Learning Outcomes, while assessed and evaluated by the faculty, add important evidence to support adding to or deleting strategic initiatives since the results indicate whether a department or the college as a whole is an effective institution of learning. Student Services and Administrative Learning Outcomes work much the same way; however they are assessed and evaluated by each respective unit.
The planning and review process used by each entity should be appropriate to that unit, but all such processes will include three basic elements (1) Strategic Initiatives (must show linkage with general district initiatives) (2) annual review and (3) periodic review.
Annual Review – Unit Plans
Every unit of the college that completes a self-study program review will need to develop a yearly unit plan. These plans contain information that describes the previous year's goals, intended outcomes and the results from the review/assessment process. The unit plan is to include whether those outcomes from the previous year were met and if not, if additional action plans are to be developed.
New goals are to be established at this time to be acted upon throughout the year. These goals are to also be connected to the college-wide strategic initiatives which are established for the five year period. College-wide plans such as Technology, Matriculation and Student Equity are informed by unit plans. Unit plans are also a way each unit can state its case for additional needs or services that are connected to any or all of the college-wide plan responsibility. For example, if the Speech Department needs additional recording and video system this should be stated in the unit plan for that year. In turn, the technology committee reads all unit plans submitted which will then note those departments or services that are requesting attention by the committee for technology support. Unit plans should be submitted prior to the start of the fiscal year to allow the college-wide plans the opportunity to review unit needs prior to the formation of any college budget allocations.
Periodic Review – Program Review and Student Learning Outcomes
The department/unit's performance will be comprehensively evaluated periodically. In the case of the Career Technical programs they occur every two years. Academic and administrative programs are every four years. The Academic Senate design calls for SLO's to be assessed according to the same periodic review as the program cycle.
The purpose of periodic review is to provide the unit with the opportunity for an in-depth analysis of itself, a review of how it links with the college strategic planning elements by a shared governance committee. Specifically, the periodic review phase of the planning and review cycle include the following three components: (1) preparation of a self-study report by the unit (2) evaluation by a review validation team (3) revision of the unit's strategic link to that of the college as indicated by the final evaluation conducted by President's Cabinet.
Budget Plans and the Process of Allocation
The integrated model as depicted by the diagram relies on communication, understanding of results and having reliable trend data so that decision-making can take place that supports the college mission.
Allocating college resources should be based on the following criteria:
1. Clearly stated outcome analysis that contains results from each unit's assessment data. The College uses a well developed rubric-based criteria and benchmarks its commonly used metrics such as retention, withdrawal, success and failure rates as a way to show whether there has been an increase or decrease in any of these indicators.
2. Maintain consistent follow-through with both the program review and student learning outcome model so that the summary reports on each cycle is meaningful and represents college-wide commitment to the process.
3. Maintain consistent data reports that allow units to develop realistic action plans that support positive change.
4. Provide a data base for linking budget development with the planning process.
5. Identify instruction programs in need of expansion or modification early on before a downward trend becomes critical. This links with the district office initiative connected to the annual Educational Planning Committee effort.
6. The college currently identifies instruction, student service or administrative programs/units where some action is necessary through the program review process. A program could be recommended for discontinuation, reduction, expansion or maintained without change. Likewise, with the increasing implementation of the SLO results, this data will be match with previous institutional effectiveness outcomes so the college can better decide ultimately where it should be placing its financial resources.
