Otero Junior College has undergone a North Central Association accreditation review in 1962, 1967, 1975, 1985 and 1997. Each time the result has been favorable and accreditation status was granted. In the Spring of 2007, a team of four accreditation reviewers from the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), a commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, spent three days at Otero Junior College touring the campus, meeting with faculty and staff, advisory board members, and community members. They reviewed documentation from the college’s Self-study Executive Summary and analyzed all aspects of the Otero Junior College’s 2007 Self-study and mission in order to make a recommendation to the HLC for continued accreditation of the college.
Current Accreditation
At an exit interview held on April 4, 2008 Dr. William Tammone, team chair, recommended a 10-year accreditation for Otero Junior College. During the exit interview Dr. Tammone was highly complementary of the college citing over 50 strengths found during the visit.
In addition to the strengths noted by the team, there were four areas identified where improvement is needed. Areas identified were:
The need to develop strong assessments for student learning to help guide planning, budgeting, and contiguous improvement.
Make progress toward collecting and analyzing data on clear objectives and direct measures of student learning along with indirect measures of general education.
Availability and utilization of professional development funds to enhance assessment efforts.
Measure the effectiveness of general education.
Accreditation Comments
As Otero students, faculty, staff and administration seek to improve we endeavor to differentiate assessment as:
“an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It involves making our expectations explicit and public; setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards; and using the resulting information to document, explain, and improve performance. When it is embedded effectively within larger institutional systems, assessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our assumptions, and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of higher education.” (Angelo, T. A. (1995). Reassessing (and defining) assessment. The AAHE Bulletin, 48 (2), 7-9)
