Planning for Institutional Effectiveness Lord Fairfax Community College

1. Office of Planning & Institutional Effectiveness Lord Fairfax Community College Planning for Institutional EffectivenessLord Fairfax Community College Presented by:

2. MISSION GOALS OBJECTIVES OUTCOMES MEASURES FINDINGS

3. THE MISSION • The mission statement in essence defines the purpose for which an organization or units within an organization exist. • It answers the question: Why Are We Here? • A mission statement must be broad but clearly defined. Eg. The purpose of the Institutional Research Office is to provide college-wide data. (Unclear, too narrow) It is the mission of IRR to define, collect, analyze, maintain and disseminate official institutional data, and to provide official institutional information to both internal and external constituents for the purposes of describing, documenting, and publishing institutional information and measures of effectiveness. (George Mason University)

4. GOALS Where Am I Going? • Goals emerge because of what you know about your particular area • Goals are more specific than the mission statement • Goals are different from objectives in that they are not connected to a timeline. • Goals provide clear directions to the operations of an organization or units within an organization Example You are part of the admissions office and realized that certain racial and ethnic groups are under-represented. Your unit wants to address the situation. A goal for your unit could be stated as follows- GOAL: TO CREATE A DIVERSE STUDENT BODY

5. OBJECTIVES What do I need to do to get there? • Objectives are measurable, precise timetables for actions • They stem directly from the goals; there may be multiple objectives for each goal • They can be crossed off when finished EXAMPLE From the previous example, the units objectives could be • Increase enrollment of minority racial and ethnic groups by 5% each academic year • Increase retention of minority racial and ethnic groups from 30% to 35%

6. How to Set Outcome Objectives • There’s no magic number • e.g. 80% or 90% • What is reasonable? • What can you afford? • What realistically can your staff accomplish? • What percent shows you’re not committed and what percent shows you’re naïve?

7. How to Set Objectives • The first time you set objectives, be conservative • Allow yourself a pilot semester or year to determine the appropriate levels of change that can be expected • Don’t pull a rabbit out of your hat (e.g. let’s grow enrollment of minority groups by 70%)

8. OUTCOMES What will happen when I get there? • Outcomes are the tangible results that a unit expects to realize at the end of the day Example Continuing with our previous example, the following outcomes could be the tangible results for the unit • More representation of minority student at LFCC • Greater cultural awareness among the student

9. MEASURES How will I know how I am I doing? Outcomes must be assessed. In order to assess our outcomes, we need to come up with possible ways of doing that. The ways become the measures we use. • A good measure should be a valid and reliable tool for assessing how well we are doing with regards to a particular outcome In our example, Student Enrollment can be a good measure of our outcomes.

10. FINDINGS How Am I doing? Assessing outcomes helps units make a determination of how they are doing. If valid and reliable measures are used, a unit should be able to answer this question with proof (data). Example According to our enrollment data, there were 100 minority students enrolled in Fall 2000. In Fall 2001, there are 700. This represents a 60% increase in minority student enrollment

11. Good Assessment is Used • The results are used to inform important decisions on objectives • What is the department most concerned in addressing? • Are there goals for which the department/unit needs data (proof)? • Don’t create data that sits on the shelf – it should be used again and again.

12. QUESTIONS???