Every six years, colleges that partner with the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges must be evaluated. This year, Citrus College is due for an evaluation.
The evaluation in 2016 led the commission to reaffirm the accreditation for 18 months and require a follow-up report in 2017 to ensure standards, policies, and procedures were met.
The 2015 Visiting Team Evaluation Report said “with several exceptions, it is at the level of proficiency in the assessment of student learning outcomes and perhaps on the verge of sustainable continuous quality improvement in the assessment of course, program, and certificate outcomes.”
The follow-up implied that Citrus College was in need of improvement.
A recommendation the evaluation made was for Citrus to include information regarding complaint procedures and sexual harassment in its print and electronic catalog.
Under “Environmental Health and Safety,” Citrus has a brief message pertaining to its intolerance of sexual harassment.
The commission is concerned with the honesty of the report. The commission report said they want the college to approach its next report to the commission in a way “that provides for broader college input, more careful attention to presenting the factual evidence of the College’s performance with respect to standards, and more careful review of the report before finalizing it.”
Another concern was the low standards of the college. The commission’s recommendation was for the institution-set standards to be set to a more rigorous level.
In comparison to the 2009 evaluation, which had six comments with 20 citations, the 2015 evaluation had two recommendations with six citations.
Since the 2016 evaluation, many things have changed. Citrus added 15 Associate Degrees and one certificate program to its Distant Education program in 2015, Biotechnology and Bio-manufacturing programs in 2018, and 19 more programs in 2019.
Vice President of Academic Affairs Joumana McGowan said Citrus’s goal is to “get accredited without any recommendations or any additional visits” and that “We have been and continue to be in good standing with Accreditation.”
In preparation for the visit, the college has been selected “to participate and partner with ACCJC in implementing a PILOT-Formative/Summative Accreditation Review process.” said McGowan.
She said Citrus is one of three colleges to be selected in this process.
This new initiative is ACCJC’s way of collecting data and feedback to share with the college in hopes that they can better improve based on their continuous recommendations, the ACCJC’s website said.
