About SCAD


Institutional Effectiveness


Within the mission of SCAD, the office of institutional effectiveness actively builds the university's reputation as a leader in art and design education by fostering a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring adherence to best practices in evaluation and assessment, advancing the systematic use of information for decision-making, monitoring the university's compliance with state, federal and accreditation requirements, and facilitating the achievement of the university's strategic goals.

The department includes three functional reporting areas: institutional research, institutional assessment and accreditation; and another location at SCAD Atlanta. The chief academic officer is a member of the President's Cabinet and serves as the institutional liaison to the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

Vision
The institutional effectiveness department is a nationally recognized leader in providing assessment, planning and evaluation information and strategies that are current, rigorous and useful. As the university’s centralized office for planning, assessment, institutional research and accreditation, the department supports SCAD’s success and growth by fostering a culture of evidence-based decision making, promoting best practices for student learning, and maintaining and developing relationships with external constituencies that further SCAD’s leadership in art and design education.
Values
The institutional effectiveness department's values:
  • Unified dedication to SCAD's mission, goals and values
  • Clarity of departmental mission and goals
  • Excellence and rigor in all phases of the research and evaluation process
  • Rigorous critique and review of all analytic information, as well as thoughtful planning and evaluation
  • Dissemination of accurate information that is both useful and used for decision-making
  • A culture that encourages an honest and open exchange of ideas
  • Respectful and open communication
  • Continuous development of individual talents and the contributions of each staff member
  • Appropriate and timely follow-through to completion of assigned projects
Goals
  1. The institutional effectiveness department facilitates the progress of academic and non-academic areas at SCAD as well as the university overall in achieving and maintaining the highest standards of quality and international recognition.
  2.   The institutional effectiveness department provides leadership for accreditation actions.
  3. SCAD meets and exceeds standards for use of student outcomes-based assessment and institutional effectiveness requirements as relevant to SACS and professional accreditation reviews.
  4.   SCAD evaluates overall institutional effectiveness on an annual basis and uses the resulting information in annual and strategic planning processes to facilitate continuous improvement.
  5.   The institutional effectiveness department provides an information-rich environment and actively disseminates findings of evaluative studies to further develop data-rich discussions about student learning and a culture of evidence in decision making at SCAD.
  6.   The institutional effectiveness department collaborates with other departments and units at SCAD to understand user needs for information, provide relevant information in a timely and understandable manner, and provide appropriate consultative expertise.
  7.   The institutional effectiveness department utilizes best practices in designing, conducting, analyzing and reporting decision-facilitation research, evaluation and assessment studies.
Office of institutional assessment
The office of institutional assessment is the university's central office for the facilitation of program- and department-level assessment activities at all SCAD locations. OIA supports the university's success and growth by fostering a culture that understands, values and uses assessment data to support evidence-based decisions that enhance student learning, promote a positive university experience, and further SCAD's reputation as a leader in art and design education.
Office of institutional research
The office of institutional research is a service unit that provides management information and centralized reporting services. The office responds to internal data requests by providing official counts and customized statistical analyses, and interview-based studies. The office responds to external data requests by providing official institutional information to governmental, accreditation and other agencies interested in advertising and comparing university statistics. Such institutional information includes retention rates, completion/graduation and transfer-out rates for students and students receiving athletically related student aid. The work of institutional research is guided by the overarching goal of assisting the institution in its understanding of the external environment, including its opportunities and challenges to build on institutional values to aid decision-makers in assessment, planning, policy development and the implementation of creative strategies to achieve its mission.

SCAD Fact Book
The Fact Book, produced by the office of institutional research, is published every fall and is available to the SCAD community in early December. This fact book serves as a useful resource to SCAD students, faculty and staff as it contains a collection of commonly used and cited official university statistics.

Office of accreditation
The office of accreditation is charged with managing compliance and reaffirmation efforts related to regional accreditation (SACSCOC) and specialized accreditation (i.e., NAAB, CIDA). The office also facilitates the review of faculty qualifications in collaboration with human resources, and conducts studies of policy interest to SCAD using best practice quantitative and qualitative research methods.
SCAD Atlanta institutional effectiveness
Overseen by the associate dean of learning resources and staffed by the coordinator of institutional effectiveness, the SCAD institutional effectiveness office in Atlanta provides support for assessment efforts, institutional research and survey research at the Atlanta location.

Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA)
The Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA), as amended by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA), includes disclosure and reporting requirements for postsecondary education institutions. SCAD is committed to meeting these requirements by making information available to current and prospective students, parents, faculty, employees and the general public. Please use this online menu to have single point access to all federally mandated reports and disclosures:



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  • Mary Taylor presents paper at annual meeting
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