Program Ownership

As presented by Medea Valdez, Ph.D.

From her webinar, “Consultants and Accreditation Support”

Last week, we reviewed the self-assessment “readiness” checklist. Most programs fall somewhere in the middle of the preparedness spectrum; a consultant can step in at any point and offer valuable input that can move the dial closer to full preparedness, not just for your upcoming site visit or SSR but also for ongoing assessment through the years.

Earlier in the series, we briefly covered the importance of the program taking ownership of its SSR and assessment process. Today, I’d like to emphasize this in greater detail. A consultant’s help can certainly bring your program to a state of preparedness and understanding, but ultimately, and in all circumstances, your program has complete ownership of the results.

You can’t fool the judge!

My friend worked as a legal secretary for many years and told me this story of “ownership.” Attorneys often present briefs to a judge. If the judge finds a mistake in the document, the attorney might say, “That’s my secretary’s fault.” But judges don’t look kindly on that. 

“Is your secretary’s signature on the bottom of this document?” the judge asks. 

“No, mine is,” would say the shame-faced attorney. 

The judge concluded, “Then the mistake is yours.” 

Similarly, if the judge asked the attorney to explain an argument presented, the attorney could not say, “My clerk wrote that argument; so I don’t really know what it’s saying.”  

At this point, the judge would grow very impatient. Attorneys learn quickly to entirely “own” and understand the briefs they submit to the court.

When the ARC-PA examines your report, records, and program, it considers your program entirely responsible for its contents. 

This advice is not meant to discourage you from using the help of a consultant. A consultant can be a true lifesaver. But you (your program, faculty, staff) must take responsibility not only for the accuracy of the information you present, but also for understanding what it all means.

Review, Update, Finalize

Consultants may help with exhibit files and the drafting of your narratives. However, the program must take ownership. The program is responsible for finding inaccuracies, missing data, or incorrect benchmarks or data. The program is expected to know how ANIs and strengths are determined.

The program should describe how it approaches the data and its benchmarks, critically analyzes the data, and triangulates the data to arrive at its conclusions. A consultant may provide guidance or review, but the program is an active participant, ensuring that narratives are consistent with its processes.

The Program makes the decisions and must articulate why these decisions were made. If you have a consultant help with drafting and outlining, you must have sufficient time to make it your own. Proofreading, double-checking data, and comparing against evidence files should all be done, and bringing in a consultant early on allows plenty of time for this.

To summarize, the program has these responsibilities:

• Ownership of the Assessment Process and the SSR

• Compliance and ensuring it is meeting the C1 Standards.

• Decision-making. The program identifies Areas Needing Improvement, Action Plans, and the Strengths.

A Great Outcome: Program Sustainability

After the consulting contract ends, is everything in place to move forward? I’m delighted to see results when a program has taken ownership of its assessment.

Do you have processes and support for embedding the following steps into the program's culture?

• Faculty and staff are empowered and participating but not overwhelmed.

• Data collection is understood and regularly performed.

• Data tabulation has a clear pathway to the analysis stage.

• Data analysis (internal or external) provides valuable information that can be acted on.

• Each committee sees the data it needs to see, within its area of responsibility.

• An Annual Retreat is scheduled. A retreat is a critical time when everyone can look at the big picture together. It is also a great place to do data triangulation, so everyone is involved in the decisions on ANIs and strengths.

• The program has a deeper understanding and appreciation of assessment, which will be the topic of my final blog in this series.

Next time…

I hope this series has been an enlightening experience, not just about hiring a consultant to improve your program’s self-assessment processes, but also the purpose of self-assessment in and of itself. The final blog in my series will be an overall review of the “5 Ws” (Why, What, When, Who, and How) of Self-Assessment: an excellent list for understanding and reminding ourselves what self-assessment is really all about and how it can become a part of your program’s culture. I hope to see you then!