Section 3: Assessment in Practice: The College Area Review (CAR)

Introduction & Overview

The College Area Review or “CAR” process is used to enhance the quality of a discipline/program, special unit, or administrative area and provides information for institutional decision making and improvements. This periodic and systematic review is one of the primary assessment activities at Montgomery College. College Area Review is completed every 6 years as part of an integrated assessment cycle and is assigned to the Office of Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs. As a result of the review findings, actionable recommendations are approved, and implementation is expected within the six-year review cycle.

 

Who participates in the CAR Process and why is it important?

All academic areas (credit and non-credit), student affairs, and administrative units complete the college area review process.

The College Area Review provides essential information for college planning, establishing priorities for resource allocation and budgeting, as well as identifying recommendations for institutional effectiveness and continuous improvements. The review process offers an opportunity to consider and identify actions necessary to meet the needs of students, employers, and the community.

 

Organizing & Completing CAR Activities

Each area at the College differs on how they choose to organize and complete their assessment functions. The organization of assessment activities is often dependent on several factors: the size of the area, the number of services offered, and the ratio of full-time to part-time faculty or staff. The styles of leadership within each area may also be a determining factor.

Below is the most common approach that areas use when completing assessment activities:

• In many areas, it is a coordinator, chair or director who acts as the lead for assessment activities who will often form workgroups to organize and complete reports for any major assessment requirements. Depending on the leader and the makeup of the area, these workgroups and the leads for the workgroups will either be determined by the dean or director of that given area, or by their designee (chair, coordinator, etc.).
  
  
• Regardless of the organizational approach used, the following apply:
  • The area leaders are responsible for providing support and guidance for area faculty or staff (as needed) throughout the assessment process and may play an active role in assessment activities (when applicable for that area).
  • Deans or directors are responsible for ensuring that any assessment requirements for their areas are completed and submitted by the required due dates. This includes:
    • Submission of all completed CAR reports to the Provost for review and approval
    • Submission of all approved, completed CAR reports to the Office of Assessment by the designated due date

College Area Review Content

Content Formats for the CAR Report

Everyone completing the College Area Review process at Montgomery College is required to address questions that evaluate how well their area is achieving the fundamental institutional and area goals that support the College mission. However, it is recognized that there are essential differences that exist between the structure, operation, and obligations of academic and administrative areas (e.g., disciplines with courses, programs that offer awards [certificates/degrees], administrative services, etc.).

Because of this, the format for the CAR report has been tailored to accommodate the different requirements for each area by including only those sections and corresponding questions that are applicable to the discipline, program, or administrative area’s make-up (e.g., if your discipline does not award a degree or certificate, questions pertaining to these topics would not be a part of that discipline’s CAR format.) Please see the diagram below for a visual representation of these differences:

College Area Review Content by Program Type or Discipline

Academic Review

For academic areas, this review examines the following (as applicable): the curriculum, teaching methodologies, assessment activities, articulation agreements, advisory committees, enrollments and awards, transfer summaries, discipline cost, industry projections, and the strengths and opportunities of each discipline/program. During this process, academic areas also conduct benchmarking analysis and degree programs solicit input from an external peer review. Once completed, the report is then reviewed by the College Area Review Committee (CARC) where recommendations for academic improvements are approved. These recommendations are then implemented during the next six-year review cycle and status updates of pending recommendations are required.

Administrative Review

The purpose of the administrative review is to evaluate and assess if our administrative areas are effective, contribute to student learning, and align with the overall mission of the organization. The administrative review provides an opportunity to examine all non-academic areas using multiple measures by reviewing unit functions and services, by assessing and benchmarking services, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and examining unit resources and planning. As a result of the review findings, actionable recommendations are approved, implementation is expected within the six-year review cycle, and status updates of pending recommendations are required.

 

Individual Report Templates

Below, you will find a list of the 5 CAR report formats:

• Disciplines Only (no certificate or degree program)
• Programs with External Accreditors
• Certificate Programs
• Degree Programs
• Administrative & Special Programs

For detailed information on the content that should be provided to complete your individual CAR process, please visit the Assessment Repositorynew window in Blackboard and click on the main menu to the left for “Assessment Resources, Forms, Toolkits and Templates” to access the CAR Resources folder. Once in the folder, choose the format that applies to your discipline, program, or administrative area for a complete report template.

Support & Timeline for CAR Activities

The Office of Assessment is eager to support faculty and staff as they complete the CAR process. This support may take the form of workshops, discipline group meetings, or one-on-one discussions with anyone that might need assistance with CAR-related topics (e.g., report forms, data, analysis, content, resources, etc.). Whenever feasible, assistance will be given in order to make the process as useful, efficient, and user-friendly as possible.

 

CAR Workshops

Each semester, the Office of Assessment provides workshops for anyone completing the process that may need assistance. The topics of the workshops are determined on a semester-by-semester basis and either reflect requests for specific content by faculty or staff, or for topics that appear to need more clarification or guidance, based on previous reports and/or feedback. Information on how to access these workshops are communicated to the specific areas completing the CAR process each semester and are also advertised in the Fall & Spring editions of the Assessment News Brief (available via email and also on the Assessment Repository site in Blackboard).

 

The CAR Process

Below is a representation of the stages that take place during the CAR process.

Timeline

To assist faculty & staff with planning CAR activities, a potential timeline has been created for guidance on how to schedule reasonable workloads during the process and to allow time for valuable discussion and reflection that is necessary for quality content. A timeline is only meant to provide suggestions for planning and is not required for CAR participants.

 

Submission and Review of the Completed CAR Report

Once a CAR report is completed, the report should be sent to the following bodies in the order listed below:

• The Dean or Director of the area (for review and an approval signature).
• The Provost of the area (for review and an approval/signature).
• The Office of Assessment for presentation and review at the next convened meeting by the College Area Review Committee (CARC).
• The Office of Assessment submits the final review to the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs for review and approval.