NCEA Continuous Improvement Process
The National Community Education Association has developed a Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) which provides a Community Education or a 21st CCLC Program an excellent vehicle for strategic planning and/or establishing benchmarks for the future. The process includes self-assessments, on-site visits and consultancies as part of a menu of CIP services.
The National Community Education Association became involved in 2001 (first field test in Ankeny, Iowa) in providing assistance to schools and school districts that want to improve the quality of community education programs. The process was based on a model popularized by corporations that were faced with the need to improve their operations due to pressure from a competitive environment.
While public schools are not in a similar environment of competition, they are feeling the pressure to become more accountable for their results. Schools are becoming aware that they cannot continue to do things the way they have always done them. It has been said that, “when you do what you’ve always done, your going to get what you always got.”
An important element of the change process is being able to know if the changes made have produced the desired results. Data is needed to document the impact on the object of change. A simple example would be a new initiative to get students to attend school in greater rates. Attendance records provide the benchmark to show where they started. Attendance data collected periodically after the new initiative was put in place give a picture of the results that are being produced. Lack of improvement would cause the program leaders to reexamine the process to see if it can still be improved.
The pilot test implementation of Continuous Improvement came from three (Ankeny, IA, Roseville, MN, and Hastings, MN) Midwestern community education programs. These programs used an NCEA developed rubric to collect data about their programs. The rubric was framed around a set of principles of community education that had evolved over three decades of practices. That data was collected in a portfolio that created a comprehensive picture of the results being achieved by the programs. The principles are:
- Life-long Learning
- Self-determination
- Efficient Use of Community Resources
- Self-help
- Leadership Development
- Inclusion
- Institutional Responsiveness
- Integrated Delivery of Services
- Decentralization
A team made up of community educators from other localities that were recognized for being outstanding community education programs made a visit to each site. The visiting teams reviewed the data, and interviewed key leaders from the school and community. The visiting teams determined the level that they saw the program functioning at that particular point in time. The levels used were:
- · Basic
- · Emerging
- · Proficient
- · Exemplary
These ratings were compared with a self-assessment done by local leaders. A report is then prepared by the visiting team to provide observations, commendations and recommendations for further improvement of the program.
Mr. Kevin Koester
CE Director — Ankeny, Iowa
Reported that the CIP Final Validation report was an "extremely useful document for our organization to work from. This process of prepared portfolio for self assessment and visit by experts pays tremendous evaluative benefits to express genuinely needed recommendations and to stretch local vision and planning."
Sally Warring
CE Director — Roseville, Minnesota
Indicated that the time they had with the review team went by fast and that they are still talking about the process. The effects of the process she reported will be with them for some time as they work to complete the new ideas and suggestions that arose from the investigation. Mrs. Warring believes that even without the review team, by going through the rubrics they could see where they needed to do some more work and began to do different things before the team arrived.
CIPAS
T
he nine Community Education Principles utilized are:
Principle 1:Leadership Development — The training of local leaders in such skills as problem solving, decision-making, and group process is essential for ongoing self-help and community improvement efforts.
Principle 2: Self Help — People are best served when their capacity to help themselves is encouraged and developed. When people assume responsibility for their own well being, then become part of the solution and build independence rather than dependence.
Principle 3: Self-Determination — Local people have a right and a responsibility to be involved in determining community needs and identifying community resources that can be used to address those needs.
Principle 4: Localization — Services, programs, and other community involvement opportunities that are close to where people live have the greatest potential for a high level of public participation. Whenever possible, these activities should be decentralized to locations of easy public access.
Principle 5: Integrated Delivery of Services — Organizations and agencies that operate for the public good can meet their own goals and better serve the public by collaborating with other organizations and agencies that are working toward common goals.
Principle 6: Maximum Use of Resources — Full use of the physical, financial, and human resources of every community must be coordinated if the diverse needs and interests of the community are to be met effectively and without duplication.
Principle 7: Inclusion — Community programs, activities and services should involve the broadest possible cross section of community residents. The segregation or isolation of people by age, income, social class, sex, race, ethnicity, religion, or handicapping condition inhibits the full development of the community.
Principle 8: Responsiveness — Public institutions exist to serve the public and therefore are obligated to develop programs and services that meet continuously changing public needs.
Principle 9: Lifelong Learning — Learning begins at birth and continues until death. Formal and informal learning opportunities should be available to residents of all ages in a wide variety of community settings.
The NCEA Board of Directors approved a pricing policy for CIP that allows any size program to access the process. This includes CIP services designed specifically for 21st CCLC Projects.
-
Portfolio Assessment and Site Visit — $3,500 (plus travel expenses for Visiting Team Leader) .
This level includes the portfolio development using the NCEA CIPAS Rubric, and a one day visit from a Visiting Team made up of a team leader and 2 peer reviewers who would validate the portfolio, make recommendations, and commendations. The Visiting Team would also work with the local program to identify ways to improve program and services. A written report is submitted to the local site leadership within 8 weeks of the site visit.
-
E-version Rubric is available to states and localities. -- Prices are available on request for state and local licences to use the e-version rubric.
E-Version of Continuous Improvement
In 2005 NCEA joined in partnership with Cayen Systems, LLC to develop an electronic version of the CIPAS rubric. This rubric was designed to allow local program leaders to upload data and documents that provide evidence of their program’s performance on each of the indicators that are contained in the seven components.
The components and the indicators are contained in a rubric template that provides linkages to the database of evidence for each indicator. The local leaders, after compiling and reviewing the data will assign a score for where they feel their program is on each indicator. The ratings range from 1-4, based on upon specified criteria and examples for the numerous indicators of success levels within each component of the NCEA rubric design.
The Visiting Team would have access to the program’s database prior to making an on-site visit. After visiting program activities, interviewing staff, community leaders, agency personnel, and students, each visiting team member would review the data for each indicator. They would then use the same 4 point rating scale to provide their view of the program on each indicator. The Visiting Team Leader convenes the team to review each component and how each team member viewed each indicator. The team strives to reach a consensus team rating. The scores validated by the Visiting Team are immediately shared with the local program leadership. A report is also prepared by the visiting team to provide observations, suggestions and recommendations to the local program leaders.
The database created by the E-version CIPAS continues to be available for review and updating. This makes the continuous use of that data accessible and useful in continuing to improve the programs.
For further information please contact NCEA at the address below or the Continuous Improvement Process Co-Chairs:
Duane Rupert Or-- Beth Robertson
Co-chair, NCEA Continuous Improvement Committee Executive Director, NCEA
duanerupert@hotmail.com brobertson@ncea.com
Florence, South Carolina Fairfax, Virginia
