Lee College, with its annual Institutional Effectiveness Report Card (IERC), sustains its strong commitment to institutional effectiveness. This year's review, embodied in this document, includes indicators derived from the College's goals for 2006-2007. The measures shown are designed to reflect how well the College is accomplishing its goals, which in turn, support Lee College's mission.

The Institutional Effectiveness Committee (IEC), as part of its annual preparations for publishing this year's IERC, reviewed last year's indicators and made some additions, modifications, and deletions. These changes were generally made to add indicators that the committee believed were more relevant to the College goals and to take advantage of additional data that has become available since last year's report. All measures chosen reflect the consensus of the IEC. A comparison of the core indicators of effectiveness published by the American Association of Community Colleges on May 17, 1994 shows that this IERC provides all but two of the indicators recommended:

As with previous IERC’s, this document is organized by goal with institution-wide indicators shown for each goal. Every effort was made to use the most recent data available. The IEC developed the recommended working targets for the indicators after reviewing existing historical data, discussing what the desirable targets should be, and reaching group consensus. Newer indicators may have no working target yet established.

The IERC is designed to foster discussion among all the College's diverse elements with a view towards continuous improvement in the accomplishment of the College mission.

Charge: To evaluate the College's effectiveness in accomplishing the goals and mission, to select and use a variety of performance measures (institutional effectiveness indicators), and to publish an Institutional Effectiveness Report Card (IERC).

Membership: Four academic members (three teaching and one non teaching), four applied science and community education members (three teaching and one non teaching), one dean (chair), one any division non-teaching, and one administrator/administrative support, plus ex officio research technician, and immediate past chair, if available.

Method of Selection: The Academic Studies Division elects its representatives, the Applied Science and Community Education (ASCE) dean appoints ASCE members, the President appoints the chair and the administrator/administrative support member, and the appropriate dean appoints the any division non teaching member.

Process: The Committee meets in the Spring to validate indicators of effectiveness. These indicators are measures of the degree to which to College is meeting the College goals. Then, the Committtee publishes an Institutional Effectiveness Report Card (IERC) in the July-August timeframe. The Committee Chair normally briefs the President's Council on the results of the IERC in September of each year.

How to Use This Institutional Effectiveness Report Card (IERC)

Step 1. Recognize that the IERC is but one part of a comprehensive, continuous, institutional effectiveness process.

Step 2. Review the College goals. Each section contains a page with a goal statement containing a summary of the College's progress towards accomplishing that goal.

Step 3. Review the institutional effectiveness indicators for each goal. The indicators contain the data used for a particular measure, the source(s) for the data, the working target(s), and a designated Office of Primary Responsibility (OPR) for the indicator.

Step 4. After your review of the IERC, meet with others in your functional area and discuss how you will use the results of the IERC's evaluation. Are there any adjustments that you believe may be needed to better meet the College's goals? This is your big chance to influence how the College accomplishes its mission!

Step 5. In coordination within your organization, modify your unit plan to incorporate the adjustments of Step 4. For example, an indicator may lead you to recommend accomplishing research to uncover the reasons behind performance. Or, your action plan might conceivably become part of a budget proposal to obtain the resources needed for goal attainment.

Step 6. Over the course of time, monitor your unit's performance via the annual IERC to see if the adjustment you made actually moved the College closer to goal accomplishment. What were the results of your initiatives?

Step 7. Go back to Step 1 and start the cycle over again. Adjustments would be made and the process of continuous improvement sustained.

Functional areas do not have to address each and every indicator simultaneously. Due to limited resources, such an approach is clearly not economically feasible. Accordingly, an organization may choose to focus its attention on one particular issue and over the course of time research and implement a specific action plan for just that item. The idea is to use the IERC as one means to evaluate goal achievement and, then, as a framework for continuous improvement.