Shelbie Harris
Staff Writer
As part of the accreditation process, Idaho State University recently completed its comprehensive seven-year, on-site peer review visit.
This review process is completed by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) and focuses on five specific standards.
The five standards for accreditation are statements that articulate the quality and effectiveness expected of accredited institutions, and are best understood within the context of the seven-year accreditation cycle.
“There’s a year-one report covering standard one, which looks at ISU’s mission, core themes and indicators; meaning how is ISU going to set up for mission-fulfillment and what is the structure,” said Associate Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness Selena Grace.
“Then a year-three report is completed that looks at any changes made from year-one in addition to standard two,” Grace continued.
Standard two is a significant component of the accreditation process and makes up a bulk of the operations process. This standard evaluates the resource and capacity of ISU. An evaluation report is prepared and supplied to NWCCU with the opportunity for an optional on-site visit.
“The year-seven comprehensive review encompasses all five of the commission standards. Standard three looks at planning and implementation, standard four deals with effectiveness and improvement and standard five is overall mission fulfillment,” Grace said.
The standards are interconnected and build upon each other in a recursive cycle based upon continuous improvement of the institution. These standards also serve as indicators for evaluation purposes.
“[The accreditation process] is essentially quality assurance. To make sure that what students are paying for is really worth the amount they’re spending,” said ASISU President Kyle Son.
It’s important for universities to be accredited to prove they have the appropriate educational programs and resources necessary to achieve its stated purposes, and will continue to do so in the future to benefit the student community.
“Without being an accredited university, students who attend ISU wouldn’t be eligible for federal financial aid,” said Son.
“When you go to tell an employer I have a degree from Idaho State University, if it’s not accredited, your degree is not going to mean much, therefore, not going to yield you much in return when it comes to job opportunities,” Son added.
It’s also important who or what group provides accreditation to the universities.
The NWCCU is an independent, non-profit organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as the regional authority on educational quality in the northwest.
The commission analyzes institutional effectiveness for 162 different institutions across Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
The peer review team will complete their report on ISU within the coming weeks and submit it to the NWCCU. From there, ISU will be provided an opportunity to review the report and respond to any errors of fact or untruths in the document. The final report will be made a formal public document in January 2015 after the submission has been received and reviewed by the commission. From that point the process resets and ISU starts at year one again.
“In fall of 2015 ISU should have its one year report to submit to the commission. The cycle never stops,” said Grace.
