Southern Association Of Colleges And Schools Research Articles

U.S. History as Part of a Core Curriculum

U.S. History as Part of a Core Curriculum Megan Birk (bio) It never occurred to me that I would write a Texas-centered piece for The Middle West Review, but desperate times call for additional information. Much of the emphasis on the "civics crisis" in the U.S. over the last ten years focused on K-12 curriculum, and the startling lack of historical and governmental knowledge attained before high school graduation. But the problem runs deeper than K-12, with increasingly fewer institutions of higher education including U.S. history in their core curriculum. Texas is among the states that continues to require U.S. history as part of a public college education. Added in 1955, the relevant section of the Texas Education Code reads in part: "A college or university receiving state support or state aid from public funds may not grant a baccalaureate degree or a lesser degree or academic certificate to any person unless the person has credit for six semester hours or its equivalent in American History."1 In the middle of the Cold War, these six credits joined the six already required in Government/Political Science that were included by the Texas Legislature in 1929. Among the others states with such a mandate are California, which has "American Institutions" graduation options, and Georgia's universities which must include U.S. history with state content. Texas's requirement is not static. Recent adjustments to this law included adding equivalent surveys in Mexican American History, Native American History, African American History, U.S. Women's History, and others. At a time when departments across the country, but particularly in the Midwest, are facing death by a thousand cuts, these six hours help keep departments in Texas open. However, the shrinking campus cores, the diminishing number of degree plans allowing electives and minors, and the limitations on financial aid that cover only what is in the degree plan are affecting us all. Some [End Page 177] of us have the added issue of eyeing each legislative session with no small amount of concern about the future of tenure and the academic freedom to teach accurate U.S. history. Each time the administrative positions on campuses change hands there is worry about the ratio of full-time to contingent faculty. The six hours of required history are stabilizing to a degree. There is, however, a caveat. While history core classes provide a solid foundation of funds to colleges and departments as steady sources of Student Credit Hours (SCHs) and enable faculty to advertise and recruit for other history classes, this is by no means a monopolized system for four-year institutions. Students in Texas have been pushed into dual enrollment classes, which allows qualified students to take "college classes" in high school and earn credit prior to graduation. More and more students are arriving on campuses "core complete" because of this program designed to save the state, and ostensibly some parents, tuition money, but it comes at the cost of diminishing credit hours for departments and serious concern about the quality and content of dual enrollment classes in high school buildings. Texas also has a robust system of community colleges that are often partnered with their local university. The faculty at these institutions teach a wide array of U.S. history offerings that can be transferred to four-year schools, and many of them employ faculty with PhDs. Ironically, this surge of dual enrollment enthusiasm provided short term boosts to graduate programs across the state, as local teachers worked nights to earn the hours needed to teach those classes in high school. According to the accrediting standards of SACS (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges), eighteen hours of graduate credit are the minimums required to teach core curriculum history courses for college credit. In other words, someone doesn't even need to earn a master's degree to hypothetically qualify. A temporary increase in graduate students with the potential result of fewer undergraduates down the road was a brutal catch-22 for many departments. At my university of thirty-thousand-plus students, our history department is staffed by approximately twenty tenured and tenure-track...

Program Assessment for an Undergraduate Statistics Major

Program assessment is used by institutions and/or departments to prompt conversations about the status of student learning and make informed decisions about educational programs. It is also typically required by accreditation agencies, such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) or the Western Association of Schools & Colleges (WASC). The cyclic assessment process includes four steps: establishing student learning outcomes, deciding on assessment methods, collecting and analyzing data, and reflecting on the results. The theory behind the choice of assessment methods and the use of rubrics in assessment is discussed. A description of the experiences of a Department of Statistics at a large research university during their process of developing an assessment plan for the undergraduate statistics major is provided. The article concludes with the lessons learned by the department as they completed the assessment development process. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.[Received December 2014. Revised July 2015]

Developing A Sustainable AoL Framework Using Supply Chain Principles

Many accreditation agencies have adopted Assurance of Learning (AoL)-based paradigms for assessing educational institutions. Colleges/universities transitioning to an Assurance of Learning (AoL) system encounter common challenges while implementing new standards. In this research, the authors develop a stakeholder driven AoL framework which addresses common transitional issues while maintaining the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accreditation standards. The model incorporates supply chain practices by best in class (BIC) companies to optimize overall assessment efforts. The model decreases the number of redundant processes, improves collaboration throughout the university, and promotes a more comprehensive curriculum. After the model implementation, the authors examine mission statements and tenure, promotion and reappointment documents to gain insight about how to sustain accreditation.

Subversive Infusions: Strategies for the Integration of Information Literacy Across the Curriculum

Beginning in 2004, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) requires institutions seeking accreditation to develop a Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) to improve student learning. QEP topics may be focused on a single educational initiative or may combine several efforts in order to enhance and assess student learning. While some plans have focused on information literacy specifically, a considerable number of the QEP proposals submitted to SACS between 2007 and 2011 have integrated information literacy learning outcomes as part of another topic. An analysis of the topics and outcomes proposed at 58 institutions offers librarians and information professionals an alternative perspective on the integration of information literacy across the curriculum.

Community College Employee Wellness Programs

This paper describes the prevalence and characteristics of employee wellness programs in public community colleges accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). A random sample of 250 public community colleges accredited by SACS was mailed a 46-item employee-wellness program survey. The survey solicited program information regarding funding, activities offered, program administration, participation rates, and incentives. The results indicated that the majority of the employee wellness program administrative bodies were either the health and physical education departments or wellness committees. The main coordinators of the wellness programs were either part-time directors within the institutions, wellness committees, or full-time directors within the institutions. Of the institutions surveyed, 27 out of 64 (42.2%) offered employee wellness programs. The findings indicate that the prevalence of employee wellness programs in public community colleges accredited by SACS is below previous research findings in community colleges and universities and do not meet the national health goals of employee health promotion prevalence set forth by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The IRSC Baccalaureate Transition Team: Leading Change in a Culture of Communication, Collaboration, and Creativity

No other Florida community college has successfully developed and launched nine baccalaureate degree programs at one time. Indian River State College accomplished this goal—and gained Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) Level II accreditation—in 12 months by establishing a college-wide Baccalaureate Transition Team within a culture of enhanced communication, collaboration, and creativity.

Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute QEP: Writing Across The Curriculum Professional Development Program

As part of its Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) reaffirmation process, Caldwell Community College (CCC) and Technical Institute's (TI) Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP), entitled “E...

Using a Database as an Assessment Reporting Tool

In anticipation of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) visit in 2002, the Florida Atlantic University Institutional Effectiveness and Analysis (IEA) team began outcomes assessment planning with the creation and development of a searchable data-base that would be used to collect and archive assessment information. This database became known as the Assessment Reporting Database, and access to it was made readily available through a university-wide network. This article provides information about the creation, access, and use of the Assessment Reporting Database at Florida Atlantic University and discusses why there is a need for such an assessment reporting tool and how it can be used by other academic institutions to improve the overall quality of their library assessment studies.

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Accreditation:Impact on Elementary Student Performance

Currently, 848 Georgia public elementary schools that house third- and fifth-grades in the same building use the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) accreditation as a school improvement model. The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether elementary schools that are SACS accredited increased their levels of academic achievement at a higher rate over a five-year period than elementary schools that were not SACS accredited as measured by the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS). Independent variables included accreditation status, socioeconomic status (SES) of schools, and baseline scores of academic achievement. Dependent variables included mathematics and reading achievement scores. There was a statistically significant difference found when examining the SES of schools and baseline scores of the elementary schools. SACS accredited elementary schools had higher SES and higher baseline scores in third- and fifth grade mathematics and reading. However, the multiple regression model indicated no statistically significant differences in gain scores between SACS accredited and non-SACS accredited elementary schools in third- and fifth-grade mathematics and reading achievement during the five year period examined in this study.

Surviving a Distance Learning Accreditation Visit

Columbus State University (CSU) was the first higher education institution in Georgia to experience an on-site distance learning program review by the regional accreditation agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Library services and personnel are essential in the support and delivery of distance learning at CSU and were therefore critical elements in the SACS review. The role of the library, campus preparations, the on-site visit, and the review outcomes are discussed in this paper. Initiated by a “substantive change” in the quantity of distance learning offerings, CSU's accreditation experience can prove beneficial to others as there is a similarity in the review process despite differences among institutions and accreditation agencies.

Coming Soon to Your Department: Institutional Effectiveness Plans

institutional effectiveness a top priority at Francis Marion. First, and most important, the university was scheduled to undergo its reaccreditation visit by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) in March 1997. Second, in its 1996 legislative session, the South Carolina General Assembly had enacted a revolutionary performance-based funding model which held public institutions to high standards of results-based accountability. Student retention, graduation rates, and the scholarly output of faculty members were all soon receiving unprecedented attention. Finally, a new administrative team took the helm of

Data needs identified for sacs self‐study

AbstractRoseann Hogan, director of institutional research at the University of Notre Dame, describes successful strategies used at her previous institution, Kentucky State University, to provide assessment data in support of a Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) self‐study completed in 1989. A faculty committee examined the institution's goals, as stated in its planning documents, and identified the data that were needed to document how successfully the institution had met them.