Kaua‘i community college

Self Evaluation

Kaua‘i Community College relies on its faculty resources to identify competency levels, to develop appropriate SLOs, and to use measurement tools that assess student achievement of SLOs. The faculty are primarily responsible for the development and formal review of the curriculum. Career and Technical Education programs such as Culinary Arts, Business Education, Automotive Mechanics Technology, Auto Body Repair and Painting continually solicit input from their advisory committees to redefine their competencies and restructure their curriculum. As described above, community input from Kaua‘i planning documents is also distributed to all programs.

The college is in the process of developing common rubrics and/or assessment tools for assessing common SLOs on college, program and course levels. Within the next five years the college will have developed common SLOs and assessment instruments for all five campus-wide SLOs.
In the CCSSE surveys conducted in 2002 and 2004, a benchmark on student effort was measured and compared with other small colleges as well as all of the colleges who participated in the survey (Exhibit I-8: CCSSE Reports). This benchmark was measured from survey questions about student preparation for papers, classes, use of tutors, labs, books read, etc. In 2002 KCC scored slightly under the average for small colleges. In 2004 the score was above the average. Although the benchmarks were measured differently in the two years, making direct comparisons problematic, it is safe to say that there was improvement in student effort in general.
Planning Agenda

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  The college’s career and technical education programs should continue to meet regularly and work with their respective advisory committees to develop and evaluate the stated Student Learning Outcomes to ensure that they are current and meet industry standards.
  

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  The college will complete its campus SLO assessment cycle.
  

II.A.2.c. High-quality instruction and appropriate breadth, depth, rigor, sequencing, time to completion, and synthesis of learning characterize all programs.
Descriptive Summary
Kaua’i Community College is a diverse institution with an open admissions policy that results in the enrollment of students with a variety of educational backgrounds and academic goals. Approximately sixty-two faculty members of varied educational backgrounds serve students’ educational needs:

Educational Preparation of KCC’s Faculty
Highest Degree Held	Number
Doctorate	8
Masters	38
Bachelors	9
Associates	5
Certificate	1
Work Experience	1

The quality of instruction is assessed through internal and external college policies and procedures. Internal policies and procedures include:

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  The program review process both comprehensive and annual update
  

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  The curriculum review process, with division, Curriculum Committee, and administrative review
  

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  The tenure review and promotion process
  

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  Post-tenure review (five-year cycle, if not applying for promotion)
  

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  The contract renewal process
  

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  The review of probationary faculty
  

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  Student evaluation of faculty
  

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  Peer evaluation of faculty
  

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  Graduating students’ focus groups
  

The quality of instruction is externally assessed through the following:

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  Compliance with accreditation standards
  

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  Articulation agreements within the University of Hawai‘i
  

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  Meeting SCANS competencies for AS/AAS programs
  

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  Adherence to the high national standards for several programs in Career and Technical Education
  
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  Utilization of industry advisory committees for Career Technical Education programs
  

The college’s recent focus on accreditation and program review has kept the campus units aware of the processes involved in assuring the quality and improvement of programs offered at the college. The new CAF assures that Kaua‘i Community College uses established procedures to design, identify learning outcomes for, approve, administer, deliver, and evaluate courses and programs. In both the program review and course approval procedures, many entities at the college are involved in establishing quality and improving instructional courses and programs. The college is committed to the accreditation goal of moving 20 percent of each programs’ courses to the new CAF by February 28, 2006.

Another measurement of quality instruction is the success rate of student transfers to four-year institutions. A recent report, Transfer, Enrollment and Performance of UH Community College Associate in Arts Graduates at UH Manoa, shows students from Kaua’i Community College perform better, or as well as, first-time UH Manoa freshmen who succeeded to the end of their third year of enrollment. The study covers the years Spring 1997 to Spring 2003. According to the study, an average of 42 percent of those receiving an Associate in Arts (AA) degree from Kaua‘i Community College transfer to UH Manoa. The average cumulative GPR of Kaua‘i students was 3.02 in comparison with a 2.99 average for all community college transfer students. An average of 85.7 percent of Kaua‘i students were in good standing at the end of the first year (Transfer, Enrollment and Performance UHCC AA Graduates). Since the full-time institutional researcher joined the college in Spring 2006, there was no opportunity to retrieve and analyze data available through the Clearinghouse database that tracks students who transfer to other colleges or universities.
Measures of quality instruction for career and technical education students include pass rates for nationally recognized certification/licensure examinations for the nursing and automotive programs and for the Cisco courses in the electronics program and job placements for all career and technical program graduates (Program Reviews and APRUs).
Students in the Nursing program have to pass the NCLEX licensure exam to qualify for the LPN and RN licenses. For the LPN program the pass rates on the NCLEAX-LPN were 100 percent from 2001 to 2004. For the RN program the pass rates for the NCLEX-RN for the first try ranged from 67 percent to 91 percent for the past five years and for the second try the scores ranged from 94 percent to 100 percent (Nursing Program overview).
The Auto Mechanics program administers the National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF) End of Program Test to measure each student’s knowledge of course content and learning outcomes. The results of the eight-part test provide instructors and administrators with impartial feedback on how well students are learning and comprehending the materials presented throughout the curriculum (Exhibit II-14: User’s Guide for the NATEF End of Program Examinations, 2005).
Some programs are accredited to ensure that they meet national and professional standards. The Early Childhood Education program is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The Culinary Arts faculty are working toward getting the Culinary program accredited by the American Culinary Federation (ACF).
In order to facilitate time to completion of their degree programs, the University of Hawai‘i Community Colleges offer distance-delivered courses. Kaua‘i Community College offers seven distance courses, which must go through the Distance Learning Committee as well as the Curriculum Committee for approval. All distance courses have completed the new CAF process in 2005-2006.
The quality of instruction in OCET is addressed through hiring policies that ensure that instructors meet specific qualifications. OCET instructors are systematically evaluated.
To carry out its training initiatives, OCET employs an expanding cadre of part-time instructors who demonstrate subject-matter competency, sound instructional skills and methodologies, and the motivation to maintain expertise and proficiency in their discipline or area of responsibility. Instructors have advanced training or degrees and/or a minimum of three years professional experience equivalency.
Data is also continuously collected on OCET’s training instructors and course offerings through a written Course Evaluation utilizing a 5-point Likert scale (1=Poor, 2=Fair, 3=Satisfactory, 4=Above Average, 5=Excellent). When analyzing course evaluations, OCET considers a ranking score of 3 as its “average” minimum performance expectation. These evaluations are distributed at the conclusion of each training class and reflect customer satisfaction in terms of achieved learning outcomes, instructor knowledge, methodology, curriculum and materials; they also solicit general feedback for areas of improvement.
Self Evaluation
The quality of instruction is a reflection of institutional quality, as assessed primarily through the accreditation process, the hiring and faculty evaluation process, the college’s program review and course approval process, and the success rate of transfer students.
Articulation agreements within the University of Hawai‘i System are further evidence of the quality of the college’s instructional offerings. Although there is an articulation website for KCC courses articulated with UH Manoa, the link to the site is not clear on the KCC website.
The program review process has illuminated the need for the college to track students after they graduate from the college for employment data and for transfer information. The Nursing program tracks its graduates for employment status (Exhibit II-15: Associate Degree Nursing Program Systematic Evaluation Plans for 2002-2005). Other programs are beginning to collect employment data for their graduates.

In the CCSSE surveys, the benchmark for ‘academic challenge’ consisted of questions dealing with student expectations; analyzing, synthesizing and applying knowledge; and similar ideas. In 2002 KCC scored below the benchmark for small colleges and in 2004 KCC scored above that benchmark. Although the methodologies for establishing benchmarks were different each year, it is safe to say that students were more challenged in the 2004 survey. The rigor of instruction vis-à-vis the average for peer colleges is comparable. The CCSSE survey was conducted again in 2006 and that will help the college define trends that could help improve instruction.