Cal Poly WASC Accreditation Process
Where We Are
As a part of the process of re-affirming our institutional accreditation, a team of reviewers from peer institutions visited Cal Poly February 10-12. This site visit was the culminating event in the second phase of the process, the Capacity and Preparatory Review (CPR), which is devoted to institutional resources of all kinds—human, fiscal, physical, and intellectual. The team evaluated whether the university has the capacity to fulfill its institutional mission and will recommend to the WASC Commission that we be permitted to proceed to the third and final phase, the Educational Effectiveness Review. The team's report has been submitted to Cal Poly for factual review. The final version will be sent to the WASC Accrediting Commission.
Where We Are Going
The third and final phase in the process is the Educational Effectiveness Review (EER). This phase moves the focus from inputs to outputs, from educational resources to the evidence of student learning itself. "Its primary purpose," according to the WASC Handbook, "is to invite sustained engagement by the institution on the extent to which it fulfills its educational objectives." These are stated at multiple levels—university, college, program, and course—and EER will lean heavily on assessment processes already in place at the university and program levels. We have our work cut out for us; the report will be due a little more than 17 months after the CPR visit, and the EER visit will take place three months later in October 2011.
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Proposal Acceptance | December 2007 |
| CPR Report Submitted | December 3, 2009 |
| CPR Site Visit | February 10-12, 2010 |
| Comission Meeting | June 16-17, 2010 |
| EER Report Due | July 27, 2011 |
| EER Site Visit | October 19-21, 2011 |
