Angelina Colleges Quality Enhancement Plan

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Angelina CollegesQuality Enhancement Plan

• Critical Thinking Skills
• A Key for Successful Student Learning in
• All Disciplines

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Keys to Student Success

• Promote active participant student roles through
  critical thinking skills
  
• Provide a variety of strategies to improve
  student success
  
• Remove barriers to student success
• Provide early intervention programs
• Effectively use instruction and Student Services
  staff to define roles for student success through
  critical thinking

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Priorities

• Expand the student development (ACCEL) program
  campus-wide with the addition of tutoring,
  mentoring, study groups and workshops/seminars
  emphasizing critical thinking
• Increase minority recruitment
• Increase advertising, recruitment outreach
• Expand building facilities and acquire additional
  faculty, staff, and counselors

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QEP Steering Committee

• The QEP Steering Committee began the development
  of the Angelina College Quality Enhancement Plan
  with suggestions and concerns submitted from the
  Institutional Planning Effectiveness Committee
  (IPEC), which includes representation from
  faculty, administration, staff, and students.
• Input was gathered through surveys of faculty,
  administrators, classified staff, and students
  

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QEP Steering Committee

• Small groups within the Steering Committee were
  appointed to develop the QEP.

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QEP Focus
The focus of Angelina College's QEP is to
continue instruction in critical thinking skills
currently in place in our student development
(ACCEL) program and to provide evidence that this
instruction is effective for freshmen.
Following collection and careful analysis of
data, plans are to expand this instruction across
the curricula to include all six instructional
divisions at Angelina College.
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QEP Focus
Although critical thinking skills are currently
embedded in our core curricula in accordance with
the mandate set forth by the Texas Higher
Education Coordinating Board in 1989, we believe
the techniques employed in our student
development (ACCEL) program have been successful
and will prove valuable in providing structured
opportunities to enhance student learning
outcomes as we extend these techniques uniformly
across the curricula.
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QEP Goals

• We will validate the effectiveness of teaching
  critical thinking skills on student learning
  outcomes in our current student development
  program through assessment tools.
• We will expand the instructional program for
  critical thinking skills which is currently in
  place in our student development program across
  the curriculum to all six instructional divisions
  at Angelina College.

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QEP Goals

• We will develop a community and campus-wide
  climate which fosters the development of critical
  thinking skills.
  
• The QEP will result in the Angelina College
  experience contributing in a measurable way to
  the acquisition of individual problem-solving and
  decision-making skills.

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Critical Thinking Skills
One of the major components of the student
development (ACCEL) program curriculum is to
teach and encourage the use of critical thinking
skills. Research indicates the necessity of crit
ical thinking skills in many aspects of life.
Mere exposure to large amounts of information is
inadequate in our society today.
It is extremely important for students to develop
the ability to apply the information they learn
to problem solving situations that occur in the
educational setting and later in the work world.
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Critical Thinking Skills
Certainly, the development of critical thinking
skills will allow students to develop a better
understanding of material covered in other
courses. Therefore, the faculty of Angelina
College has determined that an emphasis on
critical thinking will be the focus of our
Quality Enhancement Plan.
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Evaluating Our QEP

• SACS requires that all QEP decisions be data
  driven and that student outcomes be measurable.
  Angelina College will use the Community College
  Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) as one of
  our means of collecting data for our QEP. The
  five categories CCSSE assesses are
• Active and collaborative learning
• Student effort
• Academic challenge
• Student - faculty interaction
• Support for learners

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Evaluating Our QEP

• Surveys will be updated and used to question
  students' about their perceptions of how they
  gained critical thinking skills.
  
• Faculty will identify and evaluate methods of
  teaching critical thinking
  
• Course syllabi will reflect critical thinking
  components.
  
• Angelina College will continue to monitor the
  transfer students' GPAs.
  
• Faculty will continue to interact with local
  businesses about critical thinking skills needed
  in the work place.
  

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Timeline for Our QEP
Planning and Preparation
Fall 2003 Leadership team chosen.
Dec. 2003 Leadership team attends a SACS COC
Annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
Spring 2004 Formation of the QEP subcommittee
Fall 2004 QEP subcommittee becomes the QEP
Steering Committee.
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Year 1

• March 11, 2005
• IPEC meeting/Presentation of QEP goals.
• April, 2005
• Orientation of all faculty and staff to QEP at
  General Faculty meeting and division meetings to
  follow up on any QEP questions
  
• Distribution of QEP information flyer campus
  wide.
  
• Submit a list of potential lead evaluators.
• Present QEP plan to Angelina College Board of
  Trustees

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Year 1

• May 29, 2005
• IPEC CCSSE Workshop
• Summer, 2005
• Identification of QEP Coordinator
• Student development faculty in-service to include
  knowledge of QEP emphasis being critical
  thinking, use of measurement tools to be
  implemented in this semester -resources for
  development of this needs to be identified and
  made available for faculty and MIS developing
  this program

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Year 1

• June 2005
• Finalize choice of lead evaluators.
• July 11-14, 2005
• Begin professional development with the 25th
  International Conference on Critical Thinking.
  
• August 01, 2005
• Submit Quality Enhancement Plan.
• August 22-26, 2005
• QEP committee members meet with divisions and
  support personnel for explanation of finalized
  QEP, implementation plans, and on-site visit

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Year 1

• Fall, 2005
• First class day student development implements
  goals for the QEP for the semester and for
  collection and analysis of baseline data.
  
• All faculty will view Starlink Teaching Critical
  Thinking Skills Across the Curriculum and other
  identified resources as available.
  
• Professional development for faculty provided by
  critical thinking experts.
  
• Sept. 27-29, 2005
• SACS onsite committee visit. Sept. 27-29, 2005

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Year 1

• Spring, 2006
• Analyze critical thinking data from Fall, 2005
• Present analyzed criteria to the general faculty
  and staff
  
• Selected courses in each division and the faculty
  for these courses, starts development of Fall,
  2006 syllabi to include critical thinking skills
  component and measurement criteria.
• Assessments and measurement criteria for
  effectiveness of this component will be developed
  and resources need to be made available for this
  process.

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Year 1

• Time will be made available for faculty
  opportunities to share successful methodology for
  future implementation.

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Year 2

• Fall, 2006
• Critical thinking skills will be embedded in
  chosen course syllabi in each discipline.
  
• Assessments and measurement criteria measuring
  the effectiveness of this component will be
  included. Ongoing evaluation of the critical
  thinking component will continue. Critical
  thinking skills will be expanded to additional
  courses within each division for Spring, 2007.

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Year 2

• Spring, 2007
• Evaluation of critical thinking components in
  each Fall, 2006 course. Based on analysis of
  data, the feasibility of expanding the critical
  thinking component will be evaluated
• Additional courses within each discipline will
  incorporate critical thinking skills and
  measurement criteria.

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Year 2

• Summer, 2007
• Evaluation of critical thinking components in
  each Spring, 2007 course. Based on analysis of
  data the feasibility of expanding the critical
  thinking component will be evaluated
• Additional courses within each discipline will
  incorporate critical thinking skills and
  measurement criteria.

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Year 3

• Fall 2007
• Additional courses within each discipline will
  incorporate critical thinking skills and
  measurement criteria.
  
• Spring 2008
• Additional courses within each discipline will
  incorporate critical thinking skills and
  measurement criteria.

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Year 3

• Summer 2008
• Additional courses within each discipline will
  incorporate critical thinking skills and
  measurement criteria.

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Year 4

• Fall 2009
• Additional courses within each discipline will
  incorporate critical thinking skills and
  measurement criteria.
  
• Fall 2010
• Submit Focused Report to SACS detailing
  adjustments made to our plan and justifications
  for these changes based on our on-going
  assessments

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Conclusion
Angelina College's QEP has been carefully planned
and based on community college and university
best practices. However, when we begin its
implementation, we fully expect to make
adjustments and corrections as they are needed.
The QEP is a broad-based program that demands, by
its very nature, the involvement of all the
college's stakeholders.
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Conclusion
Angelina College's Quality Enhancement Plan
involves moving beyond the inclusion of critical
thinking skills in the student development
(ACCEL) program only, to inclusion of these
skills in all disciplines on campus.
Critical thinking is already embedded in the
curricula of many courses, but the development of
critical thinking skills in the ACCEL program
offers more structured opportunities that can be
applied across the curriculum campus-wide.