VCU weaves its way to accreditation

As VCU’s director of assessment, Jean Yerian oversees the implementation of an outcomes-oriented program to assess and improve the quality of student education for VCU’s reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

“We need to know what’s going on so we can know where to concentrate our efforts,” she said.

VCU needs SACS accreditation to receive federal funds such as student financial aid and university grants. Furthermore, VCU students’ course credits often do not transfer to other accredited schools without it.

“Most universities don’t even consider credits from nonaccredited universities,” Yerian said.

SACS latest assessment program differs from past ones because it analyzes the outcomes of student education instead of the processes.

“For example,” Yerian said, “the number of books in your library is good to know, but that doesn’t really tell you anything.”

Focusing on the students’ command of the material instead of the university’s teaching methods, she said, offers what she calls a more authentic approach.

Donna Brodd, vice provost for academic affairs, emphasized that education assessment differs from student grading.

“Grading looks at one student,” she said, “and assessment looks at the progress and accomplishments of a whole group of students.”

Faculty and administrators use WEAVEonline, a Web-based database available to VCU staff, but not the general public, to record their departments’ objectives plus measure and analyze their progress in achieving those objectives. The acronym “WEAVE” stands for:

* Write expected outcomes

* Establish criteria for success

* Assess performance

* View assessment results

* Effect improvements

WEAVEonline, Yerian said, “is designed as a way to get people to think intentionally about what they do and decide what constitutes success for them.”

Each department defines its own programmatic goals and criteria for deciding whether those goals or objectives are achieved.

For example, the chemistry department could set a goal of a certain percentage of students passing a comprehensive chemistry test. If the percentage of students who pass that test is less than the established objective, faculty and administrators then discuss what needs changed to meet the goal.

WEAVEonline, Brodd said, becomes essential in reporting and analyzing these goals and changes.

“The WEAVE database is quite central to collecting data about assessment,” she said. “It allows for information to be tracked and measured against the university’s goals.”

Ideally, Brodd said, the new assessment program will mesh seamlessly into standard university work and students won’t even notice it in action.

“The kind of measures that faculty use to judge the progress and attainment of learning goals are ones that they use in class anyway,” she said, “so you (students) won’t even know it’s happening.”

SACS, which evaluates universities every 10 years, first accredited VCU in 1953 and reaffirmed the university’s status most recently in 1994, said Sarena Riggs, senior secretary to Don Crump, an associate executive director of SACS. The organization’s accrediting team will visit VCU again in spring 2004.

The continual assessment of student education will ensure VCU’s accreditation with organizations such as SACS as well as facilitate internal improvements, Yerian said.

According to the SACS Principles of Accreditation, the organization “evaluates whether an institution maintains clearly specified educational objectives that are consistent with its mission and appropriate to the degrees it offers and whether it is successful in achieving its stated objectives.”

While SACS, a regional organization, accredits the university as a whole, various national organizations accredit individual VCU programs. For example, SACS, the Virginia Department of Education, and the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education accredit the School of Education.

“Many of our programs have a national target they’re aiming for separate from the university’s accreditation,” Yerian said.

Roderick McDavis, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said VCU has always been concerned with student-education assessment.

“The institution has never backed off from its commitment to success,” he said.