QEP Reports, Teams & Meeting Minutes

With College-wide participation, the QEP focus topic was selected during the 2009-2010 academic year, and the plan was developed during 2010-2011. It was deemed acceptable by an accreditation panel in October 2011, revised slightly in the months that followed, and implemented in January 2012 with some pilot initiatives. Scroll below to read about QEP development.

QEP Reports & Meeting Minutes

Palm Beach State College's accreditation status was reaffirmed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) in June 2012. Reaffirmation included the acceptance of both the College's Compliance Certificate and Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). The College prepares an annual report for internal use and, as required for continued accreditation, will submit a 5th-year Impact Report to SACSCOC by 2017. The summary, full QEP document, and reports (as they become available) may be viewed below.

Faculty & Staff QEP Teams

QEP teams have served more than one purpose over time. The College relied initially on development, writing, and implementation teams as well as an advisory council. Currently, there is solely a Support Committee that meetings twice a semester.

QEP Timeline

The full five-year plan with learning outcomes, the assessment plan, and a timeline is available in the QEP Document (full report as submitted to and accepted by SACSCOC).

September 2009 - June 2010: Selecting the topic
A broad-based process between September 2009, and January 2010, resulted in 140 submitted ideas to improve student learning. These ideas were narrowed down several times within faculty focus groups, campus forums, and two online polls. We had almost 90% faculty participation in our initial efforts, followed by over 500 participants in the first online poll, about 250 participants in the campus forums, and more than 800 participants in the final online survey. Full-time faculty, adjuncts, staff, administration and students, as well as alumni and external community members were involved in this process. The three topics that emerged as the most important to these college constituents were critical thinking, communication, and placement. Proposals for each topic were developed and submitted to the Palm Beach State College Executive Leadership Council (ELC) on April 20, 2010. By consensus, the ELC recommended critical thinking to Dr. Gallon, who made the same recommendation to the District Board of Trustees (DBOT) in May 2010. DBOT approved the topic in June 2010.

Fall 2010:  Developing the plan
The College community provided input regarding a college definition of critical thinking. With consideration of almost 700 responses, the working definition has been formulated. For the purpose of developing QEP initiatives, critical thinking is "using the skills needed to explore, evaluate, express and engage in purposeful reasoning in order to reach sound conclusions, decisions, positions, or solutions." Focus groups were held between September 17th and October 1st to talk about ways to integrate critical thinking into course work and on campus. More than 100 constituents participated, contributing 138 ideas for discussion either at a campus group or online. These ideas were all considered by the QEP Writing Team who drafted a plan for administration in December, 2010. Thank you to all who contributed to this effort.

Spring-Fall 2011:  Revising and marketing the plan
The plan drafted in the fall of 2010 was reviewed by faculty and administration during the spring term in 2011. While the draft is under review, College constituents were invited to participate in naming the QEP and creating promotional posters and videos. A formal name was not selected; poster designs and videos were used in marketing the QEP to constituents as part of the preparation for the onsite visit and remained available online for viewing until the spring term in 2012. Honors College students, SGA members, and many other students participated alongside faculty and staff in promoting the plan to prepare for the accreditation site visit.

Fall 2011:  Submitting the plan
The QEP proposal was submitted to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) in August 2011. A team of onsite evaluators visited the College to review the document and discuss the plan with constituents in October 2011. The original plan was accepted, but further revisions were made in February 2012. The revised plan was accepted by SACSCOC in June 2012 when the College's accreditation status was reaffirmed.

Spring 2012: Implementing the plan
Formal QEP pilots began in the spring semester of 2012 with professional development workshops and training. Roles began to change as the College now had a written plan to follow and the emphasis shifted from "developing a QEP" to "focusing on critical thinking." An annual report will be prepared each year to summarize the activity and accomplishments, and to formalize recommendations for improvement each year. Reports will be available online in the Documents section. Implementation will continue until 2017.