Richland College undertook the SACS Self-Study in 2000-2002, one of the colleges selected to be evaluated as a pilot under new SACS Standards. As an ongoing part of the College Quality Enhancement Plan, Richland faculty will evaluate the core curriculum Intellectual Competencies, Exemplary Educational Objectives, and Perspectives as part of Richland College’s five-year plan (pdf 29kb). During 2003-2004, faculty began meeting in discipline groups to define departmental missions and identify outcomes they wanted to assess. The 2004-2005 year will be focused on faculty discipline groups as they begin assessment of pre-determined learning outcomes and the THECB Exemplary Educational Objectives. Each year, three-five learning outcomes will be assessed in each discipline. When a discipline completes a cycle of evaluation, they will revisit outcomes previously assessed. Beginning in 2005-2006, interdisciplinary assessment of intellectual competencies will begin. Quality Enhancement Plan committees will review results of assessments and recommend changes to the instructional delivery and core curriculum. By 2009, faculty will have assessed all Intellectual Competencies, as will the Exemplary Educational Objectives and Perspectives, at least once.

Richland, as a part of its assessment of general education and transfer programs for its SACS Quality Enhancement Plan, is collecting transfer data from the University of Texas at Dallas. Like El Centro College, Richland faculty and staff are hoping to receive data which will help the college to determine how successful students are after the complete their studies in the DCCCD.