newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ALICIA CRUZ

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Inadequate systems to gauge institutional effectiveness and measure of student progress have prompted the Middle States Commission on Higher Education to issue warnings to two of their 54 accredited New Jersey Colleges.

According to a public disclosure statement, the Commission has given Kean University and Essex County College until March 1 to correct their deficiencies and provide evidence that they are in compliance with Standards 7 (institutional assessment) and 14 (assessment of student learning) or risk losing their licensure.

Essex County College spokeswoman, Marsha McCarthy told The Star-Ledger officials are in the process of creating new systems to measure student progress and are confident they'll satisfy the commission's requirements. Kean associate vice president of academic affairs Kenneth Sanders said the university has already made most of the changes the commission requested, NorthJersey.com reported.

The commission in 2006 reaffirmed Essex County College, accreditation since 1974. The University, with its primary campus in Newark, offers Postsecondary Certificates and Associate’s degrees in fields including social sciences, humanities and business.

Kean University is a coeducational institution located in Union and Hillside, with a satellite campus in Toms River, and a new campus in the People's Republic of China. The school is noted for its physical therapy program and for graduating the most teachers in the state of New Jersey annually.

According to InsideHigherEd.com, at the June 2011 meeting, the commission revoked the accreditation of culinary school, Baltimore International College. The agency added four colleges, Baltimore City Community College, Caribbean University, Luzerne County Community College, and Richmond, the American International University in London, to its rolls of institutions on probation and issued warnings to nine other colleges, listed below. Many were placed on probation or cited for failure to provide evidence of effective institutional assessment:

Columbia-Greene Community College

Erie Community College

Institute of World Politics

Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine

SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill

Union Theological Seminary, NY

Washington Theological Union, DC

Three colleges, all campuses of the University of Puerto Rico, were placed on probation for lack of governance in July 2010. The commission continued their probation, while seven of the universities branches were removed from a probationary status.