Institutional Program Reviews
Keith M. McCoy, Ph.D.
Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs
The review’s purpose is to support strategic planning and decision-making about instructional programming and support services and demonstrate accountability in maintaining locally responsive, cost-effective programs, high quality programs and services.
While mandated statewide by the Illinois Community College Act once every five years, program review is essentially a local process. Colleges are encouraged to integrate program review with campus planning and quality improvement processes that already exist. These processes may include but are not limited to strategic planning of instructional programming, development of the annual calendar, data submission and reporting, and accreditation review. The minimum required standard for conducting an acceptable review of programs is an analysis of program need, program cost-effectiveness, and program quality. Colleges may, however, develop additional local standards for the review and document the results in a way that is appropriate to broader campus planning and decision making processes.
Guidelines and schedules have been developed for reviews of four (4) major instructional program areas. Those include Academic disciplines, Career & Technical areas, Cross-disciplinary programs (i.e. general education, adult education, remedial/developmental education, vocational skills programs, and transfer functions), and Student & Academic Support Services.
Submission of a local summary report to ICCB is required by August 1st of every year. Report format and a statewide schedule of programs to be reviewed are outlined in this manual. Exceptions to the state-level schedule may be approved to accommodate campus planning cycles and are further explained later in this manual. A compilation of local reviews by major area is written every fiscal year and presented in the Program Review Statewide Summary report.
The Program Review process is designed to complement college-level planning and decision making in addition to providing information so that ICCB can fulfill its responsibilities. Colleges will be expected to develop processes that comply with Administrative Rules and ethical evaluation practices. In general, college program review processes should:
- Examine systematically at a minimum the need, quality, and cost of individual instructional programs (See the attached Table 1 for additional info regarding indicators of need, cost and quality.);
- Assure that the process is well documented and that the results of the process are considered in campus planning initiatives, quality improvement efforts, and budget allocation decisions;
- Involve faculty and appropriate administrators who are directly responsible for instruction in the area as well as faculty, academic support professionals, and administrators from across the campus as appropriate;
- Employ up-to-date and relevant information including but not limited to assessment results appropriate to the unit and comparative data on enrollment, completions, and costs using the most recent audited state-level data;
- Report results and actions resulting from reviews to local board members, advisory committees, and community groups as appropriate; and
- Adhere to a minimum review cycle of once every five years for instructional programs unless otherwise approved by ICCB staff.
