The Office of Institutional Effectiveness provides leadership, oversight, management, and integration of the College's institutional research, planning, and assessment activities.
The mission of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness (IE) is to provide leadership and support for institution-wide planning, assessment, evaluation, reporting, and research compliance activities in support of NCCs mission. The Office's efforts are directed toward identifying, analyzing, and monitoring internal and external trends and developments that influence NCC's mission and strategic mission. We work collaboratively with college constituents to ensure that the data and analyses provided meet their needs for planning and assessing institutional effectiveness, as Northampton Community College is always striving for continuous, institution-wide improvement.
Roles/Responsibilities
With NCC’s Mission and Goals at the forefront of all we do, IE oversees the implementation of strategic plan tactics, assessment of the level of progress, and the use of data to inform continuous institutional improvement. To help benchmark the progress of college-wide assessment, OIE engages in benchmarking of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) using various data sources (e.g., IPEDS, PIMS, ATD, PDP, CCSSE). The IE team engages in regular planning sessions to ensure the integration of assessment strategies into NCC’s long-term vision as it relates to the institution as a whole.
The Office of Institutional Effectiveness (IE) facilitates student learning assessment and non-teaching assessment at NCC by partnering with members of the campus community to determine whether existing college services support student learning. Student learning assessment is guided by the Academic Assessment Committee. The College Operations & Support Services Assessment Committee (COSSAC) oversees non-academic assessment.
College Effectiveness Council (CEC)
The College Effectiveness Council (CEC), housed within the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, oversees all college-wide assessment policies and procedures, while ensuring assessment results are communicated to the college community in alignment with accreditation standards. The CEC provides an assessment framework that is transparent, systematic, and sustainable, allowing for budgetary advocacy and institutional accountability. While discipline/departmental outcomes and improvement efforts are owned by each respective unit of the college, CEC ensures consistent practice occurs throughout the College. The CEC will review assessment cycles, establish timelines for the collection and reporting of data, ensure a process is established by COSSAC and the Academic Assessment Committee for informing Senior Leadership and the IMPACT Team of assessment results to drive planning and budgetary decision-making, while ensuring continuous quality improvement at NCC.
Contact:
- Dr. Scott Schaeffer, Director, Institutional Effectiveness (co-chair) @ sschaeffer@northampton.edu
College Operations and Support Services Assessment Committee (COSSAC)
COSSAC oversees and supports all non-teaching assessment conducted at NCC and is responsible for:
The College Operations and Support Services Assessment Committee is responsible for overseeing the assessment of all the non-teaching, operational units of the college. They help to articulate the goals, purpose, or outcomes of a functional area. They guide college staff in the collection of qualitative and quantitative data to determine whether a particular operational unit is meeting their stated goals, purpose, or outcomes and utilizing the gathered data to improve institutional effectiveness and quality.
Contact:
- Barry Saturen, Director, Learning Center (co-chair) @ bsaturen@northampton.edu
- Scott Schaeffer, Director, Institutional Effectiveness (co-chair) @ sschaeffer@northampton.edu
Academic Assessment Committee (ACC)
Contact:
- Jen Richardson, Assistant Dean, Academic Assessment and Program Evaluation (chair) @ jrichardson1@northampton.edu
The Office of Institutional Effectivenss (IE) provides analysis of key indicators of student performance, retention, graduation, and transfer across all student demographics. IE coordinates with academic and non-academic units (including student affairs, administration, advancement) to support assessment of strategic and annual objectives.
- Complies with required reporting – both internal and external (e.g., IPEDS, ATD, PDP, PIMS)
- Provides course and program data for periodic reviews (success rates, retention rates, graduation rates, etc.)
- Ensures the integrity of data used for communications, planning and institutional improvement
Contact:
- Emily Burger, Institutional Data and Compliance Analyst @ eburger@northampton.edu
The Office of Institutional Effectiveness collaborates with academic, administrative, and student service offices to assist in reaching divisional/departmental goals. One way we do this is by designing and administering surveys. We administer surveys to students, faculty & staff, graduates & alumni, as well as other populations as needed.
In addition to administering in-house surveys, we also facilitate the administration of third-party surveys such as the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) and the Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS).
The Office of Institutional Effectiveness analyzes and disseminates survey results to all constituents of NCC. We can provide you with customized or filtered reporting depending on your data needs.
Contact:
- Sam Temples, Assistant Director, Institutional Effectiveness @ stemples@northampton.edu
NCC is committed to protecting the well-being of our students and employees. Ethical Research Review is a process that ensures any individual, academic, or human subjects research that takes place at NCC is ethical. Our Ethical Research Review process functions similarly to an IRB (Institutional Review Board) or an ERC (Ethics Review Committee), with the primary function of assessing risks in research in order to best protect the welfare of research participants.
Because we do not function as a full IRB, we will only review external research requests that have already been sponsored/approved by another institution’s IRB or a private IRB. NCC does not independently sponsor individual, academic, or human subjects research originating outside of the institution. We will review internal research proposals that are submitted by NCC students relating to their coursework and academic pursuits that may not have IRB approval from an outside institution. We are not accepting any instances of bio-medical related research at this time.
For requests of individual, academic, or human subjects research, our Ethical Research Review process will:
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Provide community members with information, guidance, forms, and related materials as needed
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Determine if the research aligns with NCC’s mission, values, and strategic plan
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Review, approve, require modifications to, or deny research
In most cases, the Office of Institutional Effectiveness will field any instances of individual, academic, or human subjects research and make a determination as to whether we can allow the research project to take place at NCC. However, there may be research requests that should be reviewed by a larger governing body at NCC to ensure our final determination is unbiased and considers all aspects of safety. The Office of IE will escalate requests for further discussion and determination as needed.
If you are an NCC student or employee considering participating in a research study, remember that participation is always completely voluntary. You are never required to participate in research. If you do decide to participate, you can choose to stop participating at any time. If someone is requiring you to participate in research or you feel at all pressured into being a research participant, please contact the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at data@northampton.edu.
Contact:
Sam Temples, Assistant Director, Institutional Effectiveness, stemples@northampton.edu
"Accreditation" is review of the quality of higher education institutions and programs. In the United States, accreditation is a major way that students, families, government officials, and the press know that an institution or program provides a quality education. There are two basic types of educational accreditation; one type is known as "institutional" and the other is referred to as "specialized" or "programmatic." Northampton Community College is accredited by both types of accreditors.
Contact:
- Dr. Scott Schaeffer, Director, Institutional Effectiveness; MSCHE Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO) @ sschaeffer@northampton.edu
Scott Schaeffer, D.C.
Director, Institutional Effectiveness
MSCHE Accreditation Liaison Officer (ALO)
sschaeffer@northampton.edu
Sam Temples
Assistant Director, Institutional Effectiveness
stemples@northampton.edu
Emily Burger
Institutional Data and Compliance Analyst
eburger@northampton.edu
