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Impact of accreditation actions: a case study of two colleges within Western Association of Schools and Colleges' Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges

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Title	Impact of accreditation actions: a case study of two colleges within Western Association of Schools and Colleges' Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges
Author	Patel, Dipte D.
Author email	diptepat@usc.edu;dipte.patel@gmail.com
Degree	Doctor of Education
Document type	Dissertation
Degree program	Education (Leadership)
School	Rossier School of Education
Date defended/completed	2012-07-12
Date submitted	2012-08-21
Date approved	2012-08-22
Restricted until	2012-08-22
Date published	2012-08-22
Advisor (committee chair)	Keim, Robert
Advisor (committee member)	Dowd, Alicia Bustillos, Leticia T
Abstract	The United States is unique with it non-governmental peer-review based accreditation system for oversight of higher education for quality assurance and improvement. In a triad relationship with federal and state governments for accountability, accreditation associations are the designated gatekeeper for federal financial assistance. Therefore, though voluntary, accreditation status is not an option for most public, private and not for profits institutions (Wolff, 2005). ❧ Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is the only regional accreditation association with different commissions and standards for community colleges, with Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) presiding. After revision of its standards in 2002, over 40% of California Community Colleges have been sanctioned, which comprises the majority of colleges within this commission (Beno, 2012; Beno, 2011; Karandjeff, 2011). As of the January 2012 commission hearing, ACCJC has issued adverse actions to 28 colleges (25%) all within the California Community College system (ACCJC, 2012; Beno, 2012). Although an increase in sanctions has been noted among all accrediting commissions, ACCJC far exceeds its peers. ❧ Due to the severity of a sanction, this case study examined the effects of accreditation actions through a lens of accountability by examining two colleges one sanctioned and one reaffirmed with recommendations, respectively. An embedded mixed methods case study included semi-structured interviews, document review and analysis and examination of various input, progress and output performance indicators for a time period preceding comprehensive review and after addressing accreditation actions. The results revealed the impacts in areas of organizational, individual and interpersonal phenomena at each of the institutions. ❧ Sanction was deemed a strong and effective force for encouraging initial planned change to organizational structure, policies and operations to align with accountability practices, accreditation requirements and standards at the sanctioned institution. Although it may be limited by the performance measures selected, findings revealed a disconnect among effective structure and practices to measures of student outcomes. At least within these two sites studied, there was some context that leadership and an effective shared governance structure may contribute to or influence compliance with ACCJC’s expectations and capacity for improvement. In other words, unless explicitly targeted, student progress and achievement may not be a direct result of effective decision making and planning processes; and process improvements may not translate to improvements with academic outcomes. However, leadership and human agency are key factors for managing change and interpreting and shaping collective and individual understanding of quality and external requirements for balancing internal and external accountability for quality assurance and quality improvement. This study suggests implications for practice for both colleges and the accrediting commission to achieve the objective of quality improvement and institutional effectiveness.
Keyword	accreditation; community college; accountability institutional effectiveness; ACCJC; sanction
Language	English
Part of collection	University of Southern California dissertations and theses
Publisher (of the original version)	University of Southern California
Place of publication (of the original version)	Los Angeles, California
Publisher (of the digital version)	University of Southern California. Libraries
Provenance	Electronically uploaded by the author
Type	texts
Legacy record ID	usctheses-m
Rights	Patel, Dipte D.
Access conditions	The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.
Repository name	University of Southern California Digital Library
Repository address	USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 7002, 106 University Village, Los Angeles, California 90089-7002, USA
Repository email	cisadmin@usc.edu
Archival file	uscthesesreloadpub_Volume4/etd-PatelDipte-1160.pdf