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When institutional accreditation and
quality initiatives intersect many institutional problems
are solved. Some institutions find themselves preparing only
once every seven or ten years for a comprehensive review by
a regional accrediting body. Yet, in the meantime, institutions
may lack a system to recognize and promote their quality activities.
The link between efforts to prepare for accreditation reviews
and efforts to ensure continuous quality in all activities
need not be mutually exclusive. In fact, the expectations
of accreditors have evolved to a focus on student learning
and quality improvement. This new paradigm requires rigorous
self-assessment, including identifying institutional strengths
and areas of concern. The Voorhees group has been engaged
in accreditation and quality issues for more than two decades.
Work Performed
- Assistance with designing institutional
self studies for accreditation
- Design of quantitatively- and qualitatively-driven
institutional quality systems
- Collaborative assistance in dealing
with all accreditation issues comprehensive visits, focused
visits, and oversight of institutional actions
- Design and monitoring of institutional
plans to assess student academic achievement
- Review of institutional and consortial
requests to offer accredited eLearning programs
Qualifications
- Nine-year member, Consultant Evaluator
Corps for the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central
Association
- Member, the Accreditation Review Council
for the Higher Learning Commission
- Chair, evaluation teams considering
institutional requests to deliver accredited eLearning
- Development of one of the first successful
accreditation process for a eLearning consortium in the
United States
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Assessment is a fundamental process
by which institutions and systems can pinpoint their strengths
and concerns. The most frequent use of the term "assessment"
occurs in reference to measuring student learning. A more
encompassing meaning for assessment incorporates an institution-
or system-wide view of all functions. However broadly or narrowly
defined, for assessment to be valuable, it must be part of
a commitment to improvement and developed specifically for
each circumstance. Effective assessment requires engagement
and ownership of at the point of delivery. Most critically,
though, quality assessment requires clear measurement strategies,
care in collecting data, and a high degree of professional
judgment in interpreting both models and results.
Work Performed
- Development of institutional plans to
document student academic achievement
- Design of systems to integrate assessment
activities with institution-wide planning
- Assistance with selection of appropriate
measurement instruments, e.g., commercially-produced, institutionally-developed
assessments
Qualifications
- Coordination, institutional strategic
planning processes
- Review of institutional assessment plans
for accreditation
- Presenter and developer of plans to
assess distance learning
- Editor, book on competency based approaches
to assessing learning
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We are in the early stages of a learning
revolution. New learning pathways have been forged by intense
competition from organizations whose sole purpose is to deliver
learning “anytime, anyplace, anywhere” and rapid
advances in information technology. These paths no longer
automatically lead to institutions of higher education. Instead,
they lead most directly to learning opportunities that are
intensely focused and that are populated by learners and employers
who are chiefly interested in the shortest route to applied
learning. In this paradigm, learning products are defined
explicitly, delivery options are multiple, and a level of
granularity not captured by traditional student transcripts
that display only credit hours and course titles drives assessment.
Most postsecondary institutions have been slow to accept these
emerging realities, preferring instead to continue to package
curricula in the standard lengths of the academic term and
in traditional delivery formats. The bridge between the traditional
paradigm that depends on traditional credit hour measures
of student achievement and the learning revolution can be
found in competency-based models. At a minimum, the shift
in how students and potential students view learning options
should cause most institutions to examine their curricula
and its effect on its graduates. There is often a considerable
gap between intentions and actions, however.
Work Performed
- Workshops and presentations on competency-based
models learning models specifically tailored to institutional
or organizational circumstances.
- Analysis of the alignment of competencies
in existing courses and curricula
- Development of competency structures
to support labor market needs
Qualifications
- Early implementer of modules, competencies,
and evaluation of prior learning for credit
- Coauthor of $1 million grant from the
U.S. Department of Labor to create competency-based delivery
models for short-term training
- Book editor, "Measuring What Matters:
Competency-Based Learning Models in Higher Education,"
published in 2001.
- Chair, national working group on competency-based
initiatives
- National presentations on competencies
in higher education
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eLearning has forged new pathways for
students and institutions. Truly a sea change in higher education,
growth in eLearning has been rapid, dramatic, and challenging
for institutions as they move beyond the delivery of traditional,
land-based learning opportunities. There are two large challenges.
The first is in working with organizational cultures to understand
that quality eLearning techniques also are quality traditional
classroom techniques. Quality is quality, no matter the mode
of interaction. The second major challenge, then, comes in
articulating and measuring that quality. The Voorhees group
has participated in in eLearning initiatives since 1994.
Work Performed
- Development and review of plans to assess
distance learning
- Workshops on competency-based approaches
for eLearning delivery and program design
- Assistance with accreditation and quality
reviews of distance education programs
Qualifications
- National and regional presentations on
assessing eLearning
- Chair, evaluation teams considering
institutional requests to deliver accredited eLearning
- Facilitator for eLearning courses
- Editor, book on competency based approaches
to assessing learning. Published in 2001 by Jossey-Bass
- Development of one of the first successful
accreditation process for a eLearning consortium in the
United States
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Institutional finance and financial
aid have been drawn together even more tightly at a time when
tight state budgets combine with the imperatives to provide
access and success for low-income students. Some institutions
have not developed plans to increase their resources nor have
they used strategies to increase the participation of low-income
students. The latter work starts with past enrollment trends,
a realistic analysis of opportunities, and establishing reachable
goals. Understanding financial aid, student choice, and institutional
performance are key ingredients in this scenario. A prime
way that institutional finance can be enhanced is by demonstrating
to legislatures and other funders the institution's performance
in in serving targeted populations. Analyses of the adequacy
of institutional funding takes new meaning when clearly tied
to performance information.
Work Performed
- Comparative studies of institutional
and system finance
- Design of institutional marketing and
retention plans
- Studies of institutional funding
adequacy
Qualifications
- Editor, "Researching Student Financial
Aid: Creating an Action Agenda," a book designed as
a toolkit for both practitioners and policy-makers
- Author, refereed journal articles linking
financial aid to student retention
- Author, monograph on financing community
colleges. Published in 2001 by Agathon Press
- Technical and design assistance on nationwide
survey of states' financing of higher education
- Investigator on how states use data
and information systems to make policy decisions about tuition,
state appropriations, and state financial aid
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Developing resources through successful
grant writing can spell the difference between innovation
and muddling through for most institutions. Successful work
in this area requires clear conceptualization and corresponding
clarity when describing activities to funders. A critical
activity is specifying realistic project outcomes and how
they will be measured. This step usually distinguishes successful
proposals.
Work Performed
- Design of grants to meet Requests
for Proposal statements
- Proposal writing
- Development of measurement strategies
for project performance and evaluation
- Request for Proposal Development
- Summative and formative program evaluationQualifications
- Author of successful grant proposals
generating more than $70 million
- Federal grant writing including successful
proposals for statewide grants for Perkins, Workforce Investment
Act, and U.S. Department of Labor
- Private and non-governmental successful
grants to the Pew Charitable Trusts and American Association
for Community Colleges
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Program evaluation is a mysterious
activity for many. For example, it is commonly thought that
evaluation is a unique and complex process that occurs only
at certain times and in certain ways, involving the presence
of outside experts. And, many believe they must completely
understand research terminology, especially "validity"
and "reliability." The fact is, however, they don't
have to. Program evaluation begins by considering what information
is needed to make current decisions about program issues or
needs. What really is needed is a commitment to understanding
what is really going on.
Program evaluation is a process of carefully collecting information
about a program or parts of a program to make necessary decisions
about the program. There are many types of program evaluation
including needs assessments, accreditation, performanceindicator
systems, cost/benefit analysis, effectiveness, efficiency,
formative, summative, goal-based, process, outcomes assessment,
environmental scanning to name a few. The type of evaluation
selected depends on what you want to learn about a given program.
The goal is to accurately collect and understand that information.
Work Performed
- Selection of program evaluation techniques
- Development and refinement of policies
- Design of measures of program effectiveness
- Design of planning processes using program
evaluation data
- Evaluation of institutional marketing,
retention, and recruitment strategies
Qualifications
- Member, Accreditation Review Council
for the Higher Learning Commission, North Central Association
- Developed statewide accountability systems
for career and technical education
- Early implementer, statewide performance
indicator system for community college accountability
- Author, book chapter on using marketing
techniques to gauge the potential for new programs
- Established baccalaureate programs in
business management and human resource management at a tribal
college
- Developed strategic plan and business
model for the first on-line degree-granting consortium in
the United States
- Initiated comprehensive institutional
marketing programs
- Co-authored of a comprehensive college
feasibility study for the Arizona state governing for community
colleges
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No single issue is as important to higher
education institutions as aligning programs and services to meet
the needs of current and future learners. Alignment therefore is
the heart of strategic planning and must guide operational planning.
Work Performed
- Customized scanning of external and
internal environment
- Analysis of alignment of current
curriculum for current and future learners
- Assessment of all programs and services
for their impact on learners.
- Competitor analyses of instructional
programs at nearby institutions, helping to clarify niche programs
- Harvesting of information and perspectives
from internal and external strategy (focus) groups
- Enrollment projections with accompanying
scenarios based on institutional actions for building new enrollment
- Visual identification of new and projected
student markets using Geographical Information System (GIS) technology
- Assessment of current instructional technology
and future needs for eLearning alternatives
- Facilities space projections based on future
student needs and learning requirements
- Integration of new strategies within existing
planning processes
Qualifications
Voorhees Group LLC has a deep background
in facilitating strategic plans in partnership with the colleges
we serve.
- six strategic plans and projects strategy sessions
since 2004
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Usable information from multiple sources--not
just a collection of data--is the first goal of the Voorhees
Group. Effective use of focus group and survey research methodology
provides practical answers to real questions. We work with
our clients to: clarify research goals, select appropriate
research methods, design appropriate survey or focus group
questions, conduct or facilitate data collection, prepare
final data sets and data tables, and provide analysis, interpretation,
reports and presentations of the data.
Work Performed
- Harvesting information from primary information
sources, including focus groups, traditional mail surveys,
web surveys, and personal interviews.
- Analysis of response rates with multivariate
statistical methods and weighting methodologies.
- Study designs tailored to the
specific needs of the particular investigation, including
atypical survey conditions
Qualifications
Surveys and focus groups developed,
administered, and analyzed in these areas:
- strategy sessions with internal and external
groups to support strategic planning
- student satisfaction with instruction
- student aspirations (secondary and postsecondary)
- student perceptions of transfer success
- institution-wide focus groups probing
satisfaction with key services
- faculty and administrator employment
perceptions
- employer satisfaction with graduates
- student media preferences
- states' financing of higher education
- Advisory to the Cooperative Institutional
Research Project, a nationwide, longitudinal survey involving
data on some 1,800 institutions and over 11 million students
(1997 to 2000)
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There is an imbalance of supply and demand in key labor markets
in the United States. Also, there is increasing urgency to
address this problem and develop strategies that can make
an enduring impact on the way that unemployed and underemployed
individuals connect with and advance in today's complex labor
market. Higher education is under increased pressure to produce
the types of worker needed in today's economies.
Work Performed
- Forecasts of employment trends for counties,
substate regions, and states
- Matching of curriculum to employment
competencies
- Troubleshooting for institutional compliance
with WIA and Perkins regulationsQualifications
- Author, higher education section of Colorado
Workforce Investment Act plan
- Architect, Colorado's plan for career
and technical education under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational
and Technical Education Act
- Author, book chapter on using marketing
techniques to gauge the potential for new programs
- Member, Colorado statewide Workforce
Act Implementation Committee
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