City College of San Francisco - California Competes

INTRODUCTION TO THE THEME ESSAYS
In Spring 2004, the College Advisory Council and the Chancellor agreed that this Accreditation Self Study
would be conducted in two phases: first, an assessment of the College’s compliance with the standards of
the Accrediting Commission, culminating in a set of co-chair reports; and second, the development of a
set of six Theme Essays based on the themes identified by the Accrediting Commission. The College had
extensive experience developing traditional self studies in a shared governance environment; however,
the creation of coherent and insightful essays around conceptual themes posed new challenges. The
traditional structure of standards committees with co-chairs could be used as the model for standards
co-chair reports that focused on the institution’s comprehensive response to the standards. However, the
effectiveness of the Theme Essays in communicating the more ephemeral aspects of institutional culture
and values would require more emphasis on the perspective that the essay presented rather than on the
comprehensiveness of its content. Therefore, each theme committee had a lead writer and a primary
reader. The committees gathered, reviewed, and evaluated evidence. The lead writer and primary reader
developed the essay drafts that were then reviewed and revised by the committee and eventually approved
by the Steering Committee.
Since the College was in “uncharted territory” developing a self study in two phases (Standards Reports
and Theme Essays), the Accreditation Work Group (the Steering Committee’s leadership council) provided
templates and guidelines for both the Standards Reports and the Theme Essays, that were modified as
the self-study process progressed. The primary guidance for the focus of the Theme Essays was drawn
from the Accrediting Commission’s description of the themes. While each theme committee was given
considerable discretion over the specific content and style of their essay, a basic format was established.
Each essay would have four major components: (1) an overview of the essay itself; (2) an institutional
context designed to provide insights into the institutional culture and values related to the theme using
selected examples of processes and practices across the College; (3) one or more detailed case studies
that serve as exemplars of the College’s “pursuit of institutional excellence and improvement, [and]
an ‘ongoing self-reflective dialogue’” 1 related to the themes; and (4) a conclusion and future directions
section designed to assess strengths and areas for improvement.
The Work Group and the Steering Committee had an active dialog throughout both phases of the Self
Study on how much the Standards Reports and the Theme Essays should cross reference each other.
The original Standards Reports contained a section on the relationship of each of those reports to each of
the themes. Most of the original Theme Essays contained selected references to the standards, but did not
attempt to directly address the standards comprehensively. While these efforts to cross reference the two
phases were a productive part of the development of the Self Study, it was determined that their inclusion
in the final report made the document unnecessarily repetitive and long. Therefore, the final self study
document provides the Standards Reports, with comprehensive evidence that the College meets or exceeds
the standards established by the Accrediting Commission, and the Theme Essays, that provide insight
into the way the College functions, the values it holds, and selected examples of good practice related
to themes found within the standards.
The Theme Essays utilize informal case studies to focus on our processes: “What do we do How do we
do it Why do we do it that way How effective are these processes” Each essay tries to capture not only
what we have accomplished, but also the values that motivate us and the culture that supports (and
sometimes inhibits) these accomplishments. Several of the essays, for example, use our efforts to address
basic skills issues as examples of our commitment to quality education and student learning outcomes.
1 Guide to Evaluating Institutions Using ACCJC 2002 Standards, ACCJC/WASC, July 2003, p. 4.
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