UDTS ATS Accreditation 2024

Standard 2: Planning and Evaluation

• Standard 2: Planning and Evaluation

  • 2. Planning and Evaluation: Theological schools are communities of faith and learning guided by institutional visions that inform thoughtful planning grounded in ongoing evaluation. Planning is a mission-guided and broad-based process that focuses on strategic priorities in light of current realities, resulting in a plan that is appropriately resourced, actively implemented, regularly reviewed, and periodically updated. Evaluation is a simple, systematic, and sustained process that helps schools understand how well they are achieving their missions and then helps schools use that information to better achieve their missions, especially regarding student learning and formation.
    

  • Planning

    Note: Can we utilize institutional planning language rather than UDTS language here? If UDTS language, then we need to craft language around planning, as we currently don't appear to have any. - LW

  • 2.1 Planning is a mission-guided process that seeks appropriate ways to better achieve the school’s purpose(s) amid changing circumstances. It is a broad-based process that engages appropriate constituencies to develop a plan that is widely owned.
    

  • 2.2 Planning focuses on priorities that are most strategic for achieving the school’s mission and vision and that recognize both the school’s current realities and future possibilities.
    

  • 2.3 Planning results in a written plan that articulates the school’s strategic priorities in ways that clarify how each priority will be achieved, including appropriate human, financial, physical, and technological resources needed for that priority.
    

  • 2.4 The school’s plan is actively implemented, regularly evaluated, and revised as needed, attending not only to individual priorities but also to the plan’s overall ability to help the school advance its mission.
    

  • Evaluation

  • 2.5 Evaluation is a process that engages appropriate constituencies to discern how well the various aspects of the school’s mission are being achieved and how its educational and institutional outcomes could be maintained if met or improved if not met. Evaluation attends to all functions, personnel, and programs of the school. Evaluation also informs the school’s planning and budgeting processes.
    

    Note: We may need to lean on HLC language and processes in order to be comprehensive enough for this standard. We currently don't evaluate all functions and personnel. We do effectively evaluate our own programs. - LW

  • 2.6 Evaluation is a simple, systematic, and sustained process that (a) identifies key educational and institutional outcomes (including learning outcomes for each degree program); (b) systematically and regularly gathers evidence related to each outcome (with a mixture of direct and indirect measures and quantitative and qualitative data); (c) engages appropriate stakeholders (especially faculty for educational outcomes) on a sustained basis to analyze and reflect upon how well the evidence indicates that each educational and institutional outcome is being achieved; and (d) uses those analyses and reflections for educational and institutional improvement.
    

    Note: Process of evaluation of programs will be produced in the "operations manual" currently in development. Special attention will be paid to ensuring that we have the process documented and we can prove we follow it. - LW

  • 2.7 Evaluation is formalized in one or more brief, cogently written plans that identify the parties responsible for evaluation and include a list of artifacts or instruments used to measure each outcome, a timeline that indicates how those artifacts or instruments are used, and clear benchmarks for evaluating success. Evaluation plans also indicate how often and by whom the evaluation plan is updated.
    

    Note: I will produce this document. We currently have a template that includes responsible parties, artifacts/instruments, benchmarks. I will produce a timeline with frequency and publication locations and uses. This should also be included in the operations manual, either embedded or as an appendix. - LW

  • 2.8 Evaluation is concerned with both educational quality and institutional effectiveness, though the primary focus for any theological school is on students—how well they are learning and how that learning helps them achieve appropriate personal and vocational goals. In the interests of public transparency, the school publishes a statement of educational effectiveness, giving evidence of educational quality by documenting appropriate areas of student achievement for each degree program (e.g., student learning outcomes data, graduation and placement rates, student satisfaction survey results) and by regularly updating that evidence with current information.
    

    Note: Institutional effectiveness data is published on the web but has not been updated since 2021 because I didn't know how to get the comparison data. I will be sure to update for 2022-2023 data. - LW

    http://udts.dbq.edu/aboutudts/accreditation/

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    Faculty Reflections

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    Planning Toward the Misison Forum

    Mark as done
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    Planning that is articulated, implemented and then evaluated Forum

    Mark as done
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    Evaluation and Improvement Forum

    Mark as done