Accreditation

In April, 2010, NAICC was accepted into North Central’s AQIP (Academic Quality Improvement Program) system of accreditation.  Instead of a ten-year review cycle, AQIP asks colleges to focus on continuous quality improvement and to maintain a self-study document (the Systems Portfolio) that is public and updated annually.  AQIP operates three distinct cycles that occur simultaneously.  Each cycle has a different duration and sequence of processes. 

The one-year action cycle centers on three or four Action Projects chosen by the institution; we are expected to have them all in operation at once, and when one is completed it is reported on, closed, and a new project selected.   The Action Projects are generally high priority areas that come out of important areas of weakness identified in the Systems Portfolio.  NIACC Action Projects can be reviewed at ?? [Link here!]

Although the Systems Portfolio is updated annually, it receives a formal Systems Appraisal on the four year strategy cycle.  That appraisal provides institutions with written, actionable feedback they can use to create strategies and actions that will move them quickly toward achievement of their goals. Following the appraisal there is a Strategy Forum where a group of peer institutions share ideas and develop individual strategies based on feedback. 

The seven-year accreditation cycle involves a formal review of evidence from both the action cycles and strategy cycles that demonstrates that an AQIP organization continues to comply with HLC’s Criteria for Accreditation and that continuing its participation in AQIP will result in measurable performance improvement. A Check-Up Visit to the institution a year or two before its Reaffirmation of Accreditation review confirms the improvements it is making as well as the accuracy of the evidence it has submitted.