Melissa Williamson Hawkins, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Over the past 10 years, I worked in an intensive English program (IEP) and managed two different self-studies. One was the self-study of a “baby” IEP, and it was used by the team to identify steps to grow the program into a standards-based, strong IEP. The team working on the self-study was small but succeeded in securing 5-year initial accreditation from the Commission on English Language Accreditation (CEA). The second self-study was of the same IEP, a couple of years after the IEP had been moved into a joint venture partnership by its university. By this time, the IEP had a larger teaching and administrative staff. More importantly, the way that administration, recruitment, and student services were handled had altered because of the joint venture. The team maintained its reputation for quality with 10-year reaccreditation from CEA.

Being the self-study coordinator and the manager of the program’s accreditation has been an immensely rewarding experience for me professionally. Over the years, I have attended every seminar I could find at conferences on running successful accreditation bids, and I have taken notes of what has worked and what has not. As I have now moved into another role at our university, I would like to share some of my best tips, from one administrator to another. Even though my experience and tips are CEA-focused, I hope that they will speak to any accreditation self-study process, because many are quite similar in nature.

Managing the Self-Study

• Set up a steering committee of those who will be responsible for the process. Meet regularly for mutual accountability.
• Divide the standard areas among the steering committee according to natural alignment. For example, if someone knows more about program marketing, the three recruitment standards go to them, even if they are also over curriculum and student achievement.
• Include faculty throughout the process. The temptation may be to leave the self-study in the hands of administrators for simplicity, but everyone should be involved. This is critical because faculty deliver the instruction that is, in fact, the service that the program provides. A culture of collaboration can be sensed by reviewers, so encourage wide involvement in the review. In order to do this, consider adding participation in accreditation efforts to job descriptions. Remember that this job duty can include ongoing review that is required throughout the term of accreditation. Participation in this process is a fabulous professional development activity.
• Quite literally, go through the recommended steps of reviewing standards in committee work, because it really does work well to do the process in order:
  

1. Research and consider the intent of the standard.
2. Investigate your practices.
3. Figure out where you fall short and either plan to make up the difference or do so immediately.

• Write notes to yourself about summative findings along the way, which will make writing the opening part of the self-study easier. Note the following:

1. areas of excellence,
2. what you realized you were not doing according to the standards and how you addressed it (or plan to address it), and
3. how your team grew or changed as a result of the process. Ask your subcommittee leads to do the same.

Writing the Self-Study

• Put together a "style guide" for your unit. In particular, note the name your team will use for the employee handbook, the student handbook, and any other large document that touches multiple standard areas. For example, is it “ELI 2019 Employee Handbook,” “2019 ELI Employee Handbook,” or “ELI Employee Handbook 2019”? You do not want to have to edit that change at the point of submission. You also do not want to have to change fonts, margins, or other stylistic elements at the last minute.

• Divide up the template into multiple word documents. In this way, you can give away the authorship of standard areas for drafting and editing. At the end of the process, you will compile them once again into one large document.

• Use action verbs. Write in a reporting style. Give supporting detail for your substantiating evidence, but do not be extraneous. Strike a balance with your prose between too little and too much information.

• Bear in mind that the standards are written to be explicitly read and followed. Each part of the standard is examined by reviewers. If the word “must” is used, then the item is required. If the standard mentions five things, then the reviewers are looking for all five things. You may think that if you have seven of the eight things on a checklist handled, then you can leave one unchecked with no questions. In my experience, you may be asked about why that one thing is not addressed. The standards and the templates are written with great intentionality, so you should respond with great intentionality.

• Be sure to include everyone on the Faculty and Staff Table and have documentation ready. Have a group brainstorming session to make sure you are not overlooking anyone. (One year, we forgot to include graduate student tutors and had to work that in during the site visit, which was stressful.)

• Read your accreditation manual; follow instructions explicitly. If your accreditor provides a webinar on protocol for formatting and submitting the self-study, attend it. Make sure that you are clear on the minutia of submission. Ask questions if you have them, but also listen to others’ questions in case they bring up something you haven’t thought of. Don’t wait to format hyperlinks on the day that the self-study is due.

Pre-Site Visit Preparation

• Look at the site visit as a time for the program to provide evidence that what you say in your self-study is true. So, as the self-study coordinator, read through the self-study with that in mind. What might the reviewers ask or want to see that is specific to your program (beyond what the manual says they may ask to see)?
• Provide personalized briefings for individuals who will be interviewed one-on-one. Consider practice interviews to ease nerves. Create questions based on the self-study template. Because the team verifies what the self-study says, the interviews should validate and provide additional information on those questions.
• Provide group briefings for those who may be interviewed as a group (students, teachers, student assistants, front desk personnel, etc.). Also, consider providing group briefings for those who may not be interviewed but who may “be around,” just so that they feel a part of supporting the team overall during what is usually a stressful few days.
• Read your accreditation manual; follow instructions explicitly to prepare for the site visit. Take your accreditor’s instructions for the site visit team very seriously. If they say snacks are appreciated, and you want your team to feel appreciated, provide healthy snacks! If they stress that a sound-proofed room is needed, accommodate the request. Provide office supplies if they request them! In a nutshell: The more your team takes care of details previsit, the faster the site visit team can get to work when they arrive, and the less they are bothered by things you could have handled for them. They then have less to do, which makes them happier with the site. Your organization is obvious, which is a positive.

Program Development, Planning, and Review

If you have gone through any accreditation workshops or seminars by CEA, you may already know that the Program Development, Planning, and Review (PDPR) standards commonly cause issues for programs.

• If this is your first self-study and you do not have a PDPR plan set up, do it first (at the same time that you review your mission). The first and last standards are the bookends. If you set up your PDPR first, you can implement it during the rest of the self-study period, which will show that you see it needs to be done and have taken care of starting it up.
• Systematize PDPR reporting as much as possible. Find a way to clearly note action items and fulfillment. Have a documentation system set up. Create forms for departments outside of your program who have impact on the PDPR (perhaps housing, an insurance office, or campus immigration) to complete each year with attached backup documentation listed on the form.
• Consider all parts of the review required. In my experience, if there is something mentioned on a PDPR standard, you will likely be asked about it by reviewers if you do not mention it in the self-study.
• Finally, produce a student exit report automatically each year as a part of the PDPR. Include the pass/fail data that are calculated for the annual report in the PDPR.

The Site Visit

Finally, when the time comes for the site visit itself, instead of stressing out about details you may have forgotten, remember that one bad answer or missed point is not going to ruin the entire process! Not having something that the team is looking for is not the end of the world. Do your best, then get ready to follow through on that item by the time the review report comes out. In other words, right after the site visit, meet with individuals who are interviewed about questions that stumped them, and meet with your steering committee about anything that anyone realized was amiss. Then, get ready to address it. Be proactive. If you noticed it, the reviewers probably did, too.

No doubt other former self-study coordinators are reading this who have different tips to offer. Please leave your tips in the comment box below this article and consider writing them up or presenting them at a conference. I certainly needed your advice at one time in my career. Others need it, too. To that end, I hope that this short article will prove helpful. Good luck!

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgement and gratitude for sharing tips over the years are given to the following: Todd Patterson, NAFSA 2014; Alyssa Swanson, TESOL 2016; Joe McVeigh and Bruce Rindler, English USA PDC 2017.