Using CIRP Surveys to Promote Institutional Learning and Improve Educational Quality
This session provides a brief overview of CIRP surveys and their relationship to accreditation, followed by examples of use from Occidental College and University of the Pacific. Over 1,700 baccalaureate-granting institutions collect data from CIRP surveys, many of them in the WASC region, but few institutions fully exploit this information to provide evidence of student learning, improve educational quality, or support accreditation. In fact, CIRP data can be used in both Capacity Preparatory and Educational Effectiveness Reviews as indicators of student learning, to promote institutional change, and to benchmark institutions with comparison groups. Occidental College has mapped results from CIRP surveys to 26 out of the 43 WASC Standard criteria, while the University of the Pacific has used the CIRP surveys to assess students' first year in college as well as retention. Specific findings and actions that followed will be discussed.
