From Harford Community College:
Harford Community College is pleased to announce that the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) has reaffirmed the accreditation of the College. This is a significant accomplishment as heightened calls for accountability have resulted in MSCHE, in concert with the five other regional accreditors in the U.S., more closely examining accreditation standards related to student learning, resource allocation, and institutional outcomes such as graduation rates and retention.
“The resulting reaffirmation of HCC’s accreditation, with a commendation from MSCHE on the quality of the self-study process, confirms that the College is a sound institution focused on student achievement,” stated Dr. Dennis Golladay, President of Harford Community College. “It also shows that we are able to engage in self-reflection and evaluation in order to improve.” According to Dr. Golladay, the feedback from Middle States was excellent news as HCC received the best possible outcome for the College from the entire self-study/accreditation process.
The accreditation process conducted by the Middle States Commission involves a 10-year cycle of review that includes a Self-Study Report prepared by the institution under review as well as an on-site evaluation visit by a Commission team. A Periodic Review Report prepared by the institution follows five years later.
More than 100 HCC faculty, staff, and students participated in an in-depth review of all College programs, services, finances, and processes that took nearly two years and resulted in a 200-page comprehensive Self-Study Report. Upon completion of Harford’s Self-Study Report, Dr. Margaret McMenamin, President of Union County College in New Jersey, led a trained team of peer reviewers from sister institutions in New York and New Jersey on a campus visit that included three days of intense meetings, discussion, and document review.
Other than the standard five-year Periodic Review Report due on June 1, 2017, Harford Community College has no requirements for further action related to its recent accreditation. The College is in a select group as only approximately 20% of the MSCHE institutions most recently reaffirmed through the self-study process had no follow-up reporting requirements. Dr. Golladay said, “We are very fortunate to have the benefit of the Self-Study Committee’s efforts in documenting the College’s advances in fulfilling its mission and the high expectations the community has for us.”
According to Valerie Swain and Lisa Tittle, co-chairs of the Self-Study Committee, the Self-Study Report was written to address the 14 accreditation standards required by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) but also focused on the College’s own strategic plan in anticipation of a renewed strategic planning process that began this year.
The Middle States Commission on Higher Education accredits only degree-granting institutions, including colleges, universities, military academies, and religious seminaries located in Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and other locations abroad. It is located at 3624 Market Street, 2nd Floor West, Philadelphia, PA 19104.
Good deal. There aren’t very many schools at any level in Harco, public or private, that have accredidation from Middle States or any other organization.
Personally, I was glad when Harford County Public Schools stopped participating in Middle States. Accreditation. The process took over a year of agonizing meetings and absurd mounds of paperwork. There was no additional stipend for all the after school meetings, committees and sub committees that every employee in the building was required to be on. We had tons of evaluative work to do on top of our regular work load, which in itself would have been easier to deal with if ANY of the suggested changes, problems or potential had been implemented. But, here it is…..are you ready? After almost every evaluation section, in the last part where we were supposed to detail the solution, we were required to write in “Due to budgetary constraints this may or may not be able to be implemented”. And just like that HCPS was absolved of dealing with that issue and my school was still granted Middle States accreditation. It was just a labor intensive joke that changed pretty much nothing in a school.
My school recently went through this exercise. It was all about putting on a show for the visitors and making the administration look good. A great deal of extra prep work by staff and students, much of which did nothing to enhance the education of students and absolutely nothing to do with assisting teachers deliver a quality product. There is no benefit to HCPS to be involved in the Middle States accreditation process.
The accreditation process holds schools accountable to a set of standards and some of those standards have to do with management, budgeting, strategic and long range planning, etc. I would think twice before I sent my child to a school that was not accredited.
But of course public schools don’t seem to want to be held accountable except to their own standards which change frequently and have a lot of asterisks next to each of them denoting weasel words that allow them to ignore the standard if they want. Accreditation is the least I should expect from our local schools.
While the accreditation team is at the school they are hosted to the typical dog and pony show, steered toward certain classrooms, staff, and students. The school gets all gussied up and the visitors do not get to see the real school environment. This practice is much more prevalent at your lower performing schools – high performing schools do not need these evaluations. Plus I wouldn’t put a whole lot of credence in Middle States findings as virtually no schools ever fail their evaluations. They may make some recommendations for improvement but that is the extent of it. Not worth the time, effort, or expense of this exercise in image control and not real substance.
You are right. There is no benefit to HCPS. The benefit accrues to the parents of students in HCPS and to taxpayers who foot the bill for HCPS.