Institutional Effectiveness

Purpose

The purpose of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness is to support and sustain college- wide continuous improvement efforts at the Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College. This will be accomplished by using relevant and appropriate information to support assessment, informed decision making, and policy formation. Continuous improvement efforts at the College will be sustained through ongoing, comprehensive and integrated planning and evaluation related to the direction and expected outcomes of our academic programs, student learning outcomes, and educational and administrative support services.

Goals

• Facilitate SKCTC’s strategic planning and assessment initiatives with emphasis on supporting its mission and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System’s goals, measures, and targets.

• Assist with the identification of goals for assessment on an annual basis and key indicators of performance related to mission of the College, the purpose of the academic programs and support units, and the strategic planning process, including priority initiatives.

• Facilitate all aspects related to accreditation and institutional effectiveness, including the identification of goals, the relationship to the mission of the College and strategic priorities, assessment measures, analysis of data, and the use of results of assessment for improvement of academic programs, student learning outcomes, and the educational and administrative support services.

The Planning and Evaluation Process

SKTC has a long history of planning and assessment. Ongoing and systematic assessment is vital to the College’s continuous improvement initiatives, and is critical in demonstrating the quality of the institution to the community and to external agents such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Planning, assessment, and improvement at College are a shared responsibility. SKCTC has implemented an institutional effectiveness cycle that has a series of activities and a timeline to ensure a continuous planning process and a feedback loop in regard to the desired outcomes and improvements of its educational programs and its administrative and educational support services. Annually the Office of Institutional Effectiveness reviews assessment data in relation to defined outcomes to determine progress, to identify changes that must be considered for the upcoming year, and to make recommendations, including those with budget implications, to the President’s Leadership Team (PLT). The results of an institutional analysis, whereby the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the College are identified and discussed at the Annual Planning Retreat of the PLT. The results of the analysis form the basis for the review and revision of the strategic planning process and the identification of priority initiatives of the College.

SKCTC’s planning and assessment process is ongoing, integrated, institution-wide, and appropriate to the institution. With input from all academic programs and educational and administrative support units of the College, the process continues to evolve with the primary goal of improving academic programs and student learning and the services of the educational and administrative support units.