Response to the Middle States Evaluation Team's Final Report

April 30, 2012

Dr. Elizabeth H. Sibolski, President
Middle States Commission on Higher Education
3624 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA 19204

Dear Dr. Sibolski:

We wish to begin by thanking Dr. Stephen Curtis and the visiting team assembled for LaGuardia Community College. The College worked as a large collaborative to produce a comprehensive self-study, and the team engaged the campus in a thorough and thoughtful review of the supporting evidence, and multiple conversations with many faculty, staff and students.

We find the review fair and balanced in its analysis. There is only one omission that is puzzling to us which we would like to bring to the Commission’s attention. LaGuardia Community College is proud of the extensive commitment we have made to evaluating general education learning outcomes through a rigorous analysis of student work. Over the past ten years, we have invested considerable time and talent in developing an ePortfolio process to capture students’ work at the beginning, middle and end of their academic career. Faculty have worked assiduously to develop and refine rubrics to evaluate student work against our general education competencies. As the Team Report notes, this assessment project is still a work in progress. But a bi-annual rubric analysis of student work is now routinely carried out by an enthusiastic group of cross-disciplinary faculty, providing college-level assessment data.

Since we currently have over 40,000 artifacts deposited in student ePortfolios, our ability to analyze appropriate samples of student work has advanced to provide overall assessments of the impact of LaGuardia Community College on student learning outcomes. On the chart below (which can also be found on page 97 of our Self-Study Report), you will see that LaGuardia can provide evidence for improvement in student learning in four key competency areas.



Faculty teams scored samples comparing two categories of students (those with 25 and under credits vs. those with 45 and over) to assess student progress through the core competencies. Each artifact was scored on a 1-6 scale by two readers, yielding a combined score for each student ranging from 2-12. Ideally, students at or near completion of their academic careers at the college should receive a score of 10 (a 5 from each of the two readers). Overall, the results showed that students are making progress (an average increase across all rubrics of .87), though the scores for the 45 credits and over group are not yet where we would like them to be, i.e., they have not on average reached a score of 10.

LaGuardia Community College is happy to be able to provide evidence of advancement, although our goal is to produce even more substantial gains in student learning as we use this data to improve instruction across the campus. The lack of attention afforded to this important aspect of our assessment program was confusing, particularly because it was highlighted in our self study and appeared to be the kind of activity of interest to the Commission.

With this singular concern identified, we would like to again thank the Commission for appointing such an extraordinary Chair of our Visiting Team, as well as the strong team, and look forward to the final determination of the Commission on our status.

Sincerely,

Dr. Gail O. Mellow
President

 

To all members of the LaGuardia community:

I am pleased to share with you the Final Middle States Evaluation Team Report. This report is based on the Middle States Evaluation Team's review of LaGuardia's self-study report and visit to the campus in late March. I am preparing a formal response to this report that I will share with the Middle States Commission prior to their formal action on June 7th.

There are many areas where the College's extraordinary work is highlighted. This is best summarized in the overview where LaGuardia is celebrated as having a "student-centered culture, with a talented faculty, and a pervasive commitment to collaboration, vision and innovation." There are, of course, areas where improvements are noted and we are examining the report closely to understand these issues and seek improvement.

Once again, I want to thank all of you for the intensive work that went into the Middle States process.

Dr. Gail O. Mellow, President

 

To all members of the LaGuardia community:

I am pleased to announce that the Self-Study Report for Middle States accreditation has been submitted to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

On behalf of LaGuardia's Self-Study Steering Committee and Core Team, I want to thank the members of the fourteen Working Groups and the many members of the college community, including students, faculty, staff, and administrators, who have worked with such dedication on the self-study, which required collaboration from all divisions and departments of the college.

The Steering Committee and Core Team is also grateful for the extensive feedback we received during Fall 2011 from the college community regarding the draft Self-Study Report. As appropriate, this feedback has been incorporated into the final draft of the report.

The Middle States evaluation team will be conducting its site visit to LaGuardia from March 26 to March 28, 2012. More information about the site visit and how you can participate will be made available soon.

You may read the Self-Study Report and Appendices by clicking on the links below.

 

2012 Comprehensive Institutional Self-Study Report [Entire Document] (127 pages)

Introduction
Executive Summary 
 

Appendices to the Report [Entire Document] (166 pages)

Appendix 1 & 2
Appendix 3 & 4
Appendix 5 & 6
Appendix 7 & 8 

Finally, you can learn more about the purposes of accreditation, the self-study process, and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education at the Accreditation, Self Study, and Timetable, sections of this site.

Gordon Tapper
Professor of English
Chair of Middle States Steering Committee
middlestates@lagcc.cuny.edu

 

More about Middle States 

Click to download  the Middle States Fact Sheets:

Middle States On the Move 

Why Middle States Matters 

OPEN FORUM SCHEDULE

The Middle States Evaluation Team will be visiting LaGuardia March 26 - 28. For an opportunity to speak with the Evaluation team, click here for the complete Open Forums schedule.

Middle States Trivia

A mere three years after opening its doors in 1971, LaGuardia received the highest accreditation possible by the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association. 

Thanks to our legacy of collaborative cooperation, LaGuardia has since been accredited by Middle States for each successive five-year evaluation period. As LaGuardia’s current Middle States evaluation process moves forward, founding President Joseph Shenker’s recipe for success back then is a timeless one: “Since the College opened in the fall of 1971, members of the faculty, administration, and student body have joined hands and worked diligently toward creating diversified, challenging academic programs. Such an outstanding endeavor by all segments of our College has been richly rewarded by receipt of the highest level of Middle States accreditation possible.” 

To view more Trivia Questions click here.

To learn more about LaGuardia's Middle States accreditation process, contact Professor Gordon Tapper, Steering Committee Chair, at ext. 5669, or email gtapper@lagcc.cuny.edu.



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