Program/Discipline Review
What is Program/Discipline Review?
The purpose of Program/Discipline Review is to guide the development of academic programs on a continuous basis. This process that evaluates the status, effectiveness, and progress of academic programs and helps identify the future direction, needs, and priorities of those programs.
Historically, the program review process in professional-technical programs was initiated by the Dean for Instruction for Professional-technical Education. Under the new process, Program/Discipline Review is now initiated by a department’s respective dean(s), directly supported by the Assessment Committee (AC) Program Review Sub-committee, and follows the transparent and predictable rotation of when programs and disciplines will begin the process.
Who Is Involved?
Program/Discipline Review Leads
The process will be co-led by the department coordinator and dean.
Faculty
Each program or discipline’s review process will include strong faculty representation from the department, division, and faculty members at large.
Core Team
The “core team” is the team of people with day to day responsibility over the program review process. The recommended core team size is 4-5 people, but departments can determine how big or small the core team should be.
Assessment Support
The entire process is supported by the AC Program Review Sub-committee, as well as Institutional Research.
Other Relevant Stakeholders
For professional-technical programs, advisory committee members are encouraged be included in the process (directly with representative participation or through Advisory Committee Meetings by reporting and gathering feedback).
For Transfer disciplines, universities or transfer focused departments may be included.
Other staff and stakeholders may be invited to meetings for specific input. It is important to note that parties involved at this level will vary depending of the program offering and its stakeholders.
Mission and Useful Distinctions
Discipline Review for Transfer disciplines at Highline is a newer process, but it will continue the tradition of meaningful questions and data gatherings to examine effectiveness, faculty development, student achievement, and student learning of both AA Programs of Highline College.
Important Resources
Program-Discipline Review Guide
This is the program/discipline review document developed in 2019-2020. This document includes the department’s quarter 1 deliverable template.
Program Improvement Process Guide (More details coming Fall 2022)
This guide is a revision of the above document that includes as support toolkit; it was developed in 2021. This document includes the department’s quarter 1 deliverable template.
Timeline for Program/Discipline Review and Program Improvement
This document provides answers to commonly asked program review questions.
If you are new to any of the terms used above or in the guides, please refer to this glossary.
Sample Program/Discipline Review Deliverables:
- Professional-technical/Workforce (Using Program Improvement Guide): Legal Studies (2021)
- Transfer: English Department (2020)
- Professional-technical/Workforce: Business Department (2019)
Tableau Support:
- Program-Discipline Review Report with Tableau Path
- Program Improvement Tableau Guide (Coming Soon)
The 5-year Rotation Schedule