Volume 40, Number 2                                                                                                                     
Patrick R. Lake, Editor
November 2004                                                                                    

SACJTC provides a support network of more than 300 two-year colleges through which ideas and information can be shared as community college presidents face the challenges of the 21st Century.  The association represents a collective voice which provides advocacy and leadership regarding issues of critical importance to two-year colleges in the South.

Access to a legitimate avenue from a unified professional voice with SACS to address regional issues and to have an impact on policies and procedures that relate directly to two-year colleges; 

Sponsorship at the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) convention of the annual luncheon, featuring a prominent speaker;

Recognition of outstanding practices among member institutions; 

Encouragement of professional development, networking, and idea exchanges among college CEOs, administrators, and faculty; 

Communication among member institutions via the SACJTC Newsletter; 

Opportunities for professional to submit ideas for publication in issues of the SACJTC Occasional Paper.

SACJTC 2004 BUDGET AND ACTUAL & PROPOSED 2005 BUDGET*

INCOME                                                                   

                                                                                2004 (budget)         2004 (actual)          2005 (proposed)

                1.             Dues $100                                    $25,000 (250)         $23,600 (236)         $25,000 (250)        

                2.             Luncheon tickets                          $11,250 (375)         $11,160 (372)         $11,250 (375)

                3.             Interest Income                            $  1,000                   $     508                   $     600                  

               4.             Miscellaneous                              $      -0-                    $       -0-                  $      -0-

                5.             Corporate Sponsorships – Luncheon    

                                                                                    $ 7,000                    $  7,000                   $  7,000

               INCOME TOTAL                                      $44,250                   $42,268                   $43,850

EXPENSES

Member Services

                1.             Newsletter/Occasional Papers                  

                                                                                    $     700                  $         0                 $     700

2.                    Annual Luncheon

     SACS/COC
                            Processing Fee                $     500                   $      500                  $     500

     Meal                                      $18,000                   $ 14,302                  $17,000  

     Speaker                                  $  2,000                   $          0                  $  2,000

     Speaker Travel                       $  1,000                   $          0                  $  1,000

     Printing (Program/Tickets/Flyer)      
                                                                    $  1,200                   $      653                  $  1,000

     Miscellaneous (shipping/signs/AV)  
                                                    $     700                   $      116                  $     500

     Complimentary Tickets/Refunds     
                                                    $     360                   $      270                  $     360

                3.             Books                                          $         0                   $    3,782                 $         0
                                   
                                     Services Sub-Total               $24,460                   $ 19,623                  $23,060

Board of Directors

                1.             Spring Meeting Travel                 $      -0-                   $       -0-                  $     -0-

                2.             Spring Meeting Expenses            $     500                   $       -0-                  $     500

                3.             Awards                                        $     400                   $      299                  $     400

                4.             Dec. Dinner or Breakfast  Meeting        
                                                                                     $  1,000                   $      941                  $  1,000

                                   Board Sub-Total                   $  1,900                   $    1,240                 $  1,900

Honoraria

                1.             Editor                                         $     800                   $     800                   $     800  

                2.             Editor Assistant                         $     500                   $     500                   $     500

                3.             Secretary / Treasurer / Asst.      $  1,300                   $  1,300                   $        0

                                   Honoraria Sub-Total           $  2,600                   $  2,600                   $  1,300

Operating Expenses

                1.             Postage                                       $     300                   $     148                   $     300

                2.             Operating Supplies                     $  1,000                   $     500                   $  1,000

                3.             Duplicating / Printing                  $     300                   $       38                   $     300

                4.             Database Conversion/Updates    $     500                   $     648                   $         0

                5.             Miscellaneous (Web)                   $     400                   $         0                   $     400

                6.             Administrative Office Support    $15,000                   $  2,000                   $15,000  

                                     Operating Sub-Total           $17,500                   $   3,334                  $17,000

 TOTAL EXPENSES                                               $46,460                     $ 26,797                  $43,260

REVENUE / EXPENSES                                       $ 15,471                    $     590

Developing an Accountability System for Two-Year Institutions

Christina E. Whitfield, Ph.D.
Director of Research and Policy Analysis
Kentucky Community and Technical College System

Community and technical colleges throughout the United States operate in atmosphere of increased emphasis on accountability and information sharing.  This milieu is epitomized by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spelling’s February 2005 admonition to a group of community college leaders: “In God we trust, all others bring data.”[1]  Most two-year institutions can access a broad range of data elements describing their students, faculty, and finances.  How can this data be converted into useful accountability information?

Over the past year, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) developed an accountability system to support its 2006-10 Strategic Plan.  The KCTCS system is organized around four goals adopted by the KCTCS Board of Regents in December 2004:

o       Promote excellence in teaching and learning

o       Increase student access and success

o       Expand diversity and global awareness

o       Enhance the economic development of communities and the Commonwealth

The development of the KCTCS accountability system was an iterative process involving input from a wide range of stakeholders, including the Board of Regents, senior administrators from the system and KCTCS colleges, faculty, and research staff.  More than 100 potential performance measures were identified.  The process culminated with the selection of one- and five-year targets for 14 measures.  KCTCS will issue quarterly reports on these measures and progress toward the strategic planning goals. 

The KCTCS experience suggests several parameters for successful accountability initiatives:

• Define your terms.  Among the first tasks in developing an accountability system is choosing the terminology the system will use and ensuring stakeholders share an understanding of those terms.  The KCTCS system consists of core indicators (performance categories that describe an outcome of a goal), measures (statistics used to define a core indicator), and targets (performance objectives or standards).  While no national standard for defining accountability elements has yet emerged, Kentucky’s process was informed by Alfred’s Core Indicators of Effectiveness for Community Colleges and Smith’s Trusteeship in Community Colleges.[2]
   
• Consider the local context.  Accountability systems must be responsive to the concerns of local constituencies and policy makers.  In addition to the Board of Regents’ strategic planning goals, the KCTCS system is influenced by the mandates of Kentucky’s higher education reform legislation and the public agenda articulated by the Council on Postsecondary Education, Kentucky’s state coordinating board.

·        Emphasize the national perspective.  The KCTCS vision is “to create a comprehensive community and technical college system recognized as the nation’s best.”  Accordingly, the KCTCS accountability system uses national definitions, data sources, and standards where possible.  Several KCTCS accountability measures are adapted from Measuring Up, the state-by-state report card on higher education produced by the National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education, allowing comparisons to contiguous and best-performing states. 

·        Stress outcomes for students.  As Secretary Spelling’s oft-repeated quote indicates, policy makers and higher education leaders are especially interested in information about student learning outcomes.  Like other two-year institutions, KCTCS considers access a critical aspect of its mission (since KCTCS was founded in 1998, the system has experienced 64 percent enrollment growth).  The performance measures selected for the 2006-10 Strategic Plan reflect the system’s commitment to hold itself accountable for student outcomes as well as access.  Community college accountability systems should answer questions such as: Are our graduates prepared for the workforce?  Do our students transfer to four-year institutions?  How successful are our remediation efforts? 

• Incorporate flexibility.  Accountability systems should be flexible enough to respond to changing contexts (shifts in local priorities or the emergence of new national standards).  KCTCS will reevaluate the priority assigned to its core indicators, the measures selected for performance targets, and the targets themselves on a biannual basis. 

·        Recognize missing elements.  Accountability systems are necessarily limited by available data; it may prove necessary to establish “placeholders” until all elements of the strategic plan can be measured.  KCTCS plans to include direct measures of student learning and detailed information about graduates’ employment patterns as they become available.

As more two-year institutions and systems develop accountability systems, national standards for measurement and performance will emerge.  These efforts will better equip community and technical colleges to answer the charge to “bring data.” 

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