There exists a national focus on accountability for higher education. What unique aspects of learning or institutional effectiveness need to be measured or what evidence should be produced to answer questions of accountability are, at this time, decided upon by the institutions.
Ozarka College ensures accountability through a number of specific measures of student learning as well as numerous evidences of institutional effectiveness.
Student learning and institutional effectiveness measures are independent as well as interconnected. These various functions and activities ensure accountability and are a concern of all college employees. The sum of these measures of student learning and the specific evidences of institutional effectiveness provides the documentation of efforts to ensure overall college effectiveness.
This website is a presentation of the evidence-centered infrastructure of assessment, planning, budgeting, and communication functions and activities which have been established at Ozarka College to provide our evidence to answer the questions of accountability. Many of the pieces of evidence are continuous documents while others are annual presentations of data and documentation of information.
The infrastructure has been designed so that each individual component is valued, yet it is the sum of all the components that presents the desired status of college effectiveness. At Ozarka College, college effectiveness indicates that students are learning and that institutional processes, components, and structures are functioning in an effective manner.
