Trinity Valley Community College
Quality Enhancement Plan
What is the Quality Enhancement Plan?
The Quality Enhancement Plan is a topic that everyone in the college should be hearing about over the next few months. Now a major factor in SACS reaffirmation of accreditation, the QEP according to SACS is "to lead to a course of action for institutional improvement by addressing a question or questions that contribute to institutional quality with special attention to student learning" (Principles of Accreditation, 2001).
The Concept of Quality Enhancement
The concept of quality enhancement has been around a long time. If you find quality enhancement on the Internet, you will see that many organizations, from small businesses to large corporations, engage in Quality Enhancement Plans. Basically, quality enhancement provides management with ongoing evaluation and improvement of processes and/or services.
Although quality has always been a part of education, the concept of a well-conceived quality enhancement plan has now entered the realm of higher education. As stated in the Principles and Philosophy of Accreditation, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools-Commission on Colleges (SACS-COC) “expects institutions to dedicate themselves to enhancing the quality of their programs and services within the context of their missions, resources, and capacities, creating an environment in which teaching, research, and learning occurs.” SACS-COC's expectations can be found on the web at www.sacscoc.org and are specifically cited in Section II Core Requirements 5 and 12 and Section III Comprehensive Standard 16.
Section II Core Requirement 5. The institution engages in ongoing, integrated, and institutional-wide research-based planning and evaluation processes that incorporate a systematic review of programs and services that (a) results in continuing improvement and (b) demonstrates that the institution is effectively accomplishing its mission.
Section II Core Requirement 12. The institution has developed an acceptable Quality Enhancement Plan and demonstrates that the plan is part of an ongoing and evaluation process.
Section III Comprehensive Standard 16. The institution identifies expected outcomes for its educational programs and its administrative and educational support services, assesses whether it achieves these outcomes, and provides evidence of improvement based on analysis of those results.
Thus, the Quality Enhancement Plan, or QEP, has become and important factor in accreditation and reaffirmation. While most institutions have been involved in institutional assessment, the QEP calls especially for the assessment of, and ultimately the improvement of, student learning. Although the QEP will always play a separate role and be singularly documented and tracked, it will eventually becoming an important integrated component in its overall assessment and planning at TVCC.
Exactly what is the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)?
TVCC's topic is in the process of being determined, however, the guidelines below will help us to arrive at our QEP.
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It is a carefully designed, focused, forward-looking course of action that addresses issues resulting in enhanced student learning.
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It creates a permanent change in the institution's culture.
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It must involve all aspects of the institution's community: faculty, staff, students, board members, administrators, and the larger community.
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The plan has specific, well-defined goals related to identified issues leading to measurable, observable results.
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Each institution must determine a topic around which the QEP is centered.
How is the QEP currently managed and implemented?
TVCC has a Leadership Team that oversees all activities related to its reaffirmation of accreditation. In addition, there will be a QEP Committee that is specifically charged with writing the QEP as a planning document and overseeing the plan's initial implementation.
How will TVCC be evaluated by SACS-COC?
The reaffirmation process requires that each institution write a detailed explanation of its QEP in a document of no more than 100 pages and submit a one-page summary of its QEP with its compliance documents. TVCC will submit the summary and compliance documents in March 2006. The QEP Committee will write the longer document which will be mailed to SACS in late 2006. SACS will then dispatch a visiting team to our campuses sites to inspect TVCC operations and make recommendations to the plan.
The QEP has to show that TVCC:
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identified critical issues related to student learning and justified its use of the plan to benefit the quality of student learning.
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provided evidence that it has sufficient resources to implement, sustain, and complete the plan.
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has the means for determining the success of the QEP.
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involved all constituents at all levels.
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