Hogwarts has Harry Potter. The Jedi have Yoda. King Arthur had Merlin. The list of Wizards and the like throughout literature, pop culture, and cinema is never-ending. They all have unique characteristics that set them apart but all have one common attribute; making meaning out of the meaningless.
In the College of Education and Human Services, slumbers possibly the most magical wizard of all…the DATA WIZARD! Dr. Nancy Barrett, the Assessment and Accreditation Officer of the College has long been manipulating statistics to satisfy the needs of accreditation bodies and reporting agencies.
But what does that all mean??? Very few of us understand what actually comprises assessment and accreditation when it comes to our educational programs. Now we have a resource to learn from.
Every couple weeks the Data Wizard (a.k.a Nancy Barrett) will spell out (no pun intended) the terminology and help us understand the purpose and uses of data in the world of accreditation and assessment. Read on for Session 1!
What Is Accreditation and Why Is It Important?
Did you know that, based on most recent federal data, there are 7,523 accredited colleges and universities in the United States?
There are 223 in Illinois alone, according to the Illinois Board of Higher Education. These include community colleges, liberal arts colleges, universities, both public and private. One school even teaches mortuary science!
While they may serve different audiences, these institutions are all accredited. This means that an outside agency has looked at their educational programs, their faculty, and their organizational structure to determine that they have the resources needed to offer and maintain quality education for students.
At the University level, UIS is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and undergoes rigorous review to ensure that we maintain our high educational standards.
In addition to University accreditation, the College of Education and Human Services (CEHS) maintains several program-level accreditations and approvals from national and state agencies. One very important set of approvals addresses preparation for future teacher, school counselors, and school administrators. We will investigate this in our next session.
–The Data Wizard