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Institutional Effectiveness

Learn more about the ongoing, integrated, and institution-wide research-based planning and evaluation processes that contribute to institutional effectiveness at Rollins College.

Overview

Rollins College demonstrates institutional effectiveness through ongoing, integrated, and institution-wide research-based planning and evaluation processes. These recursive processes have developed over several decades and include broadly-based institutional planning aligned to the College’s mission, a systematic annual review of academic programs and administrative units, and ongoing assessment of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and benchmarks.

These processes result in a coherent and integrated system of continuous improvement, demonstrating that the College is accomplishing its mission to educate students for global citizenship and responsible leadership, empowering graduates to pursue meaningful lives and productive careers.

Accreditation and Effectiveness
In addition to regional accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), a number of Rollins programs hold additional national accreditation or curriculum approvals that contribute to the College's institutional effectiveness profile. Click here to learn more about these programs and their accreditations/approvals on the College's Accreditation website.

Accreditation Report Review Policy
All regional and program accreditation applications, reports, and reaffirmation self-study documents, other than routine data submissions, must be reviewed by the appropriate dean, Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and/or SACSCOC Liaison, the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, and, if appropriate, the President. Program faculty and department chairs preparing reports should contact the Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness well in advance of due dates for assistance and to allow adequate time for review and revision as needed.

Administrative Effectiveness System (AES)

Each administrative, academic support and student support unit/department at Rollins College is required to set goals and assessment methods, track progress toward achieving its goals, report assessment results, and make continued improvements based on those results.

Specifically, each unit/department is required to participate in the Rollins College Administrative Effectiveness System (AES) by completing annual assessment plans and reports that identify the unit/department’s mission, a minimum of three measurable goals, assessment methods for each goal, assessment results, and use of results for improvement.

The AES reporting process and archived reports, maintained in the College's XitracsTM assessment and accreditation software system, is overseen and audited for completeness and quality by staff in the Office of the Provost.

Demonstration of Learning

Demonstration of learning at Rollins is guided by the essential questions of the learner-centered college: Are our students learning?, How do we know they are learning?, and How does what we know allow us to improve learning? (O'Banion, 1997). Demonstration of learning is an ongoing process at Rollins, one that is inquiry-based, outcomes-oriented, and focused on the interpretation of results to improve teaching and learning.

Demonstration of Learning (DoL) is a faculty-driven effort at Rollins, one designed to ensure that discipline-based values and teaching practices are aligned with the College’s mission of empowering graduates to pursue meaningful lives and productive careers. A faculty-led Demonstration of Learning Team (DLT) advises and provides support to the learning outcomes review process at the College.

The Office of Institutional Effectiveness maintains resources, reporting templates, and archived DoL data in the College's XitracsTM assessment and accreditation software system to assist academic departments and programs in developing and documenting their demonstration of student learning outcomes plans and assessment reports. All DoL plans and reports for academic programs of the College are reviewed for completeness and quality each year by the College’s Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and SACSCOC Liaison, appropriate Deans, and, when required or related to resource allocations, the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost.

A short video orientation to the demonstration of learning efforts at Rollins is available. Watch Video

Questions? Please contact Dr. Toni Holbrook, Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness and SACSCOC Liaison, tsholbrook@rollins.edu or ext. 2128.


O’Banion, T. (1997). A learning college for the 21st century. Phoenix, AZ: American Council on Education and Oryx Press.

Student Achievement Goals

As an institution regionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), Rollins College is obligated to disclose to students, constituents, and the public statements of “goals for student achievement and the success of students in achieving those goals.”1 According to SACSCOC, information on student achievement “may include reliable information in retention, graduation, course completion, licensure examinations, and job placement rates and other measures of student success appropriate to institutional mission.”1

In fall 2014, Rollins established that first- to second-year retention and six-year graduation rates for resident undergraduate students would serve as appropriate measures of student achievement. Following a review of national comparison data detailed in The Condition of Education 2015: Institutional Retention and Graduation Rates for Undergraduate Students,2 goals for each metric were established in fall 2015.  Also initiated in fall 2015, using data from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) StudentTrackerSM database, was the monitoring and reporting of six-year graduation rates for students who started their college experiences at Rollins, but transferred to other institutions to complete bachelor’s degrees.3  Rollins began this process with the 2008 new student cohort, following completion of the NSC pilot program that year.

The information presented below is intended to satisfy SACSCOC requirements and is updated annually, most recently in February 2023.

First to Second Year Retention Rate Goal:
Residential Undergraduate Students

Rollins College shall retain 90% of first-time, full-time residential undergraduate students from fall of first year to fall of second year.

P E R F O R M A N C E

2014
Entering Class

2015 Entering Class

2016 Entering Class

2017 Entering Class

2018 Entering Class

2019 Entering Class

2020 Entering Class

2021
Entering
Class

89% 83%

83%

86%

87%

87%

83%

86%

 

Six-Year Graduation Rate Goal:
Residential Undergraduate Students Who Begin and Complete Degrees at Rollins College

At least 75% of first-time, full-time residential undergraduate students who begin programs at Rollins will complete bachelor’s degrees within six years.

P E R F O R M A N C E

2009
Entering
Class

2010
Entering
Class

2011
Entering
Class

2012
Entering
Class

2013
Entering
Class

2014
Entering
Class

2015 Entering Class

2016
Entering
Class

71%

72%

75%

74%

74%

81%

71%

78%

 

Six-Year Graduation Rates: 
Residential Undergraduate Students Who Begin Degrees at Rollins and Complete at Any Institution, including Rollins

P E R F O R M A N C E

2009
Entering
Class

2010
Entering
Class

2011
Entering
Class

2012
Entering
Class

2013
Entering
Class

2014
Entering
Class

2015
Entering
Class

2016 Entering Class

82.0%

84.0%

85.5%

89.7%

93.7%

93.0%

 86.0%*

89.4%

*Note: Graduation rate data obtained from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) StudentTracker for the CLA Fall 2015 cohort forwward and includes all degrees.

 ________________________________________________________

1 Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. (2014). Institutional Obligations for Public Disclosure. Retrieved from http://www.sacscoc.org/pdf/081705/InstitutionalObligationsPublicDisclosure.pdf.

2 U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). (2015.) The Condition of Education 2015: Institutional Retention and Graduation Rates for Undergraduate Students. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cva.asp.

3 For information on the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) StudentTrackerSM database, please see www.studentclearinghouse.org/colleges/studenttracker/.

CLA Academic Program Review

Purpose and Process

Introduction

Program review in the College of Liberal Arts (CLA) at Rollins is a developmental process that evaluates the status, effectiveness, and progress of academic programs and helps identify the future direction, needs, and priorities of those programs. As such, it is closely connected to strategic planning, resource allocation, assessment of student learning, and other decision-making at the program, department, and College levels. The goal of a program review should be the articulation of agreed-upon action plans for further development of the academic program.

During the review process, teams of external reviewers assess departmental self-study reports and engage in a site visit. External review teams are invited to consider issues and challenges, and to consult with faculty and administrators on future directions. The program review process is focused on improvements that can be made using resources currently available to the program. Consideration may also be given, however, to proposed program improvements and expansions that would require additional resources; in such cases, the need and priority for additional resources should be clearly specified.

The Review Process

The Dean of the College of Liberal Arts is responsible for the periodic review of all CLA departments and programs. The Assistant Provost for Institutional Effectiveness provides support and guidance on various aspects of the process outlined below and maintains archival records for use in reporting to various external accreditation organizations. The Dean’s Office provides departments with a timeline and makes the initial invitation to external reviewers. The Director of Data Analytics provides departments with data for the self-study.

Departments are responsible for selecting a team of external disciplinary reviewers, preparing a self-study document, conducting a site visit with the external review team, preparing a response to the external review team recommendations, submitting the response and action plan to the Dean, and revisiting progress on action plans. Departments may choose to hold a separate retreat dedicated to the self-study review; these retreats will be supported by the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

More Information and Next Steps

Further information and detailed guidance are available to CLA academic programs through a Canvas course site. The following links provide campus-only access.

Scheduling of Reviews, Timeline, and Contacts
Preparation for Visit
    • Selection of Visiting Team and Visit Itinerary
    • Guidelines for Self-Study
    • Self-Study Template and Xitracs Submission Instructions
Post-Visit Overview