Napa Valley College Hosts Virtual Accreditation Review Community Forum
Napa Valley College will welcome a team of peer reviewers assigned by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) on Wednesday, February 23. Their virtual visit will include a community forum from 4 to 5 p.m. The ACCJC accredits private and public colleges that confer associate degrees in California, Hawaii and U.S. territories including Guam and the Marshall Islands. Napa Valley College is currently undergoing comprehensive accreditation review as part of a regular seven-year accreditation cycle.
Accreditation in higher education begins with the development of an Institutional Self-Evaluation Report (ISER). The process provides the college the opportunity to evaluate its practices against accreditation standards and its own mission. The four accreditation standards of the ACCJC include mission, academic quality and institutional effectiveness; student learning programs and support services; resources; and leadership and governance.
More than 50 members of the NVC campus community, including trustees, faculty, classified professionals, administrators and students, have been actively engaged in the self-evaluation process for the last 14 months. NVC submitted its ISER in support of reaffirmation of accreditation to the ACCJC in December 2021. To review Napa Valley College’s ISER online, visit: https://bit.ly/NVC-Accreditation.
The accreditation process throughout higher education in the United States is grounded in peer review. Napa Valley College has been assigned a peer review team of 11 members, who will review the ISER and work with the college to help strengthen practices. The visit in February is part of the formative review process, based on the peer review team’s review of NVC’s ISER. Following the review, the team will identify core inquiries, which will be used to structure a focused site visit (anticipated in October).
Following the site visit, the peer review team will complete its summative review of NVC and will submit that report to the ACCJC. The team’s report will inform the ACCJC’s action on NVC in January 2023. External accreditors offer assurance to students and the public that Napa Valley College meets high standards of institutional effectiveness and educational quality.
The accreditation review process includes the opportunity for public comment related to the college’s compliance with eligibility requirements, accreditation standards and commission policies. In order to ensure evaluation of applicable third-party comments by the peer review team, comments must be received by September 4, 2022. The form for submitting third-party comment is available on the ACCJC website: https://accjc.org/forms/third-party-comments/
The virtual community forum hosted by the peer review team on Wednesday, February 23, at 4 p.m. offers the opportunity to meet with team members and discuss NVC’s ISER, effective practices and areas for improvement relative to ACCJC requirements. The Zoom link to attend is https://bit.ly/NVC-Accreditation.
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