Dear Colleagues,
We are writing to update you on ACPE’s re-recognition process with the US Department of Education (USDoE). As you know, ACPE has been recognized as the only accreditor of CPE programs since 1969 by the USDoE and we undergo a review process every five years. The process for this round began with submitting our petition in September 2020 and culminated this past summer.
The ACPE Accreditation Commission has faced challenges in meeting some of the requirements set forth by the USDoE. Each of these challenges necessitated significant communication with the various analysts assigned to review our petition. The overall theme of the communication was how the ACPE model of education fits the USDoE requirements. Over the past few years, the USDoE shifted its focus from a review of specific requirements to a more general and broad review of all the requirements.
First, we want to share that the NACIQI, the oversight group of the department, unanimously recommended that ACPE be recognized for another 5-year term, the maximum period of recognition, pending a compliance report that will be due to the department for review around October 2023.
The items lifted up for the compliance report are primarily administrative items, like:
|
|
- Enhancing the language for our conflict-of-interest policies for site visitors and commissioners
- Documentation is required in self-studies and site visit reports, ensuring that we are documenting, in writing, the entire process, which to date, we have relied more on spoken dialogue and email correspondence.
- Using “programs” instead of “centers” in all our educational documents since we are recognized as a program accreditor.
|
|
Essentially, many items require us to shift from our traditional informal approach to a more formal, institutional approach to be more like other accrediting bodies. The specific changes and enhancements needed will be posted to the updates section of the manual and will be implemented beginning in January 2023 for portfolios and site visits.
In addition to the administrative items, we will address a few major areas of feedback that are fundamental to our program in the coming year:
|
|
1. Satellites and Component Sites. As a programmatic accreditor we have included satellites and components in our current accreditation structure for the last twenty years with the approval of the USDoE. The USDoE has now informed us that we can no longer utilize this structure as a programmatic accreditor. As of September 2022, the Accreditation Commission stopped authorizing new satellites as we began to address this requirement. We will send out a detailed letter to satellites and their hosts about a plan to transition the satellites to provisional accreditation during 2023.
A letter will also be sent to system centers with details for transitioning component sites to full, independent accreditation. We will still acknowledge the system center accreditation model that is important to many of our programs. The finance committee is working out a financial structure that will allow ACPE to cover the costs of the additional site reviews that will be required.
2. Length of Program. ACPE currently does not have a formal length of program—our sites offer individual units of CPE, residencies (of both 3 or 4 units), second-year residencies, and fellowships. Our students enroll in our programs for various reasons and purposes and often their goals change and thus the number of the units they might want to take will change. It can be said that in many ways, CPE learning is never complete, as it is a lifelong learning endeavor. However, one of the criteria for recognition by the department requires us to have a set length of program for CPE. This is a new requirement. It’s required so that students, the consumers, know what to expect in terms of length of program when applying to CPE programs. A program length lays out a typical sequence and timeframe to achieve the objectives and outcomes of Level I/Level II CPE, as well as for Certified Educator CPE. The standard length of the program also determines how ACPE, as an accreditor, determines time frames for compliance issues for centers.
As this is a new way to think about our programs, a subgroup of the Accreditation Commission is working on this, and the results of their work will be shared later in the year with the membership as part of a larger conversation that will include a focus on student achievement as shared below.
3. Student Achievement. Currently, ACPE requires that each student complete a self-evaluation at the end of each unit and the Certified Educator complete an evaluation for each student at the end of the unit based on the outcomes. These evaluations are generally quite comprehensive and do a nice job of assessing where each student began, grew, and ended their unit. However, our current practice of assessing students does not meet the department’s requirements for measuring student achievement.
|
|
The definition of student achievement for the department requires the following:
a. A clear, standardized level of achievement for each individual student to meet in order to receive credit for a unit that demonstrates sufficient rigor, i.e. our current practice of granting credit for completing the required number of hours is not a sufficient standard of achievement and our requirement that 75% of students who complete orientation also finish the unit has been called out as a standard of retention, not a standard of achievement. Student achievement needs to be based on demonstrated, documented achievement of proscribed outcomes.
b. A clear, standardized level of student achievement with a certain percentage of students in a program meeting that level of achievement is needed so that the quality of a program can be assessed on this criterion rather than merely on the number of students who completed the required hours.
|
|
The areas of student achievement and program length are linked to each other. ACPE will need to develop a clear and comprehensive approach to measuring student achievement linked with assessment and documentation of meeting proscribed outcomes to receive credit for a unit of CPE and to allow progression from one unit of CPE to the next.
The same subgroup working on program length will also work on the framework for measuring student achievement. The results of their work will be shared later in the year with the membership.
The last element of this shift is the review of the outcomes that has been underway for the past two years. This review was initiated and was intended to expand the outcomes to include areas such as research and anti-bias outcomes, to update the language to better reflect our work as multi-faith program providers, and to ensure that the language we use is representative of who we are and the ways we do our work. The Outcomes Work Group will utilize the framework for length of program and student achievement in its review and development. We will share the fruits of their labor with the general membership as a study document for review and feedback.
These are opportunities for ACPE to enhance our educational program and to bring clarity for our students and Certified Educators as we work to clearly define student achievement in CPE. Revised outcomes will further enhance the clarity we need as we demonstrate to the USDoE how we will measure student achievement moving forward.
While the heavy lift of the work is being done by specific work groups comprised of ACPE Certified Educators, here is a timeline overview of the process and the opportunities for greater membership feedback and input on these new requirements:
|
|
- November 2022: The Accreditation Commission and Outcomes Work Group will present their preliminary frameworks for Student Achievement and Program Length along with the outline of proposed outcomes to the board.
- February-March 2023: The board-approved draft frameworks for Student Achievement and Program Length will be shared with the membership for review and feedback. The revised and enhanced outcomes will be shared with the membership for review and feedback. Look for details in the newsletters in February-March 2023.
- April 2023 – June 2023: The Accreditation Commission and the Outcomes Work Group will review feedback and make revisions/adjustments to the frameworks, seek final board approval, and publish final versions in July 2023, for implementation beginning August/September 2023.
|
|
To help with the transition to revised and enhanced outcomes and to a new model for assessing student achievement, we will be offering many opportunities for dialogue, learning, and support.
Let us be clear: the Accreditation Commission and the Board recognize the value and importance of our ongoing recognition by the USDoE to not only ACPE but to our partners and the many people we serve. We look forward to communicating with you over the next year as we make progress in these areas, seek your feedback and input, and develop the structures and frameworks that are required for ACPE to continue its recognition by the US Department of Education as the only recognized accreditor of CPE programs in the United States.
All the best,
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
