The Accreditation Cycle
The accreditation process is a seven-year cycle of activities. The figure below, illustrates the accreditation cycle of activities. These activities include annual data analysis, preconditions review, Common Standards review, program review, the site visit, and seventh-year follow up. A list of Cohort assignments as well as summaries of accreditation activities (cohort maps) for each cohort can be found in the table below. Institutions are, therefore, at different points in the accreditation cycle, depending on their assigned cohort. The cohort model distributes the workload of the Commission, its staff, and the Board of Institutional Review (BIR) members, which is composed of trained education professionals who review program documents and conduct the accreditation site visits.
Year | Accreditation Activities |
---|---|
1 | Collect Data, Analyze Data, Preconditions Review |
2 | Collect Data, Analyze Data |
3 | Collect Data, Analyze Data |
4 | Collect Data, Analyze Data, Preconditions Review |
5 | Collect Data, Analyze Data, Common Standards Review, Program Review |
6 | Collect Data, Analyze Data, Site Visit |
7 | Collect Data, Analyze Data, Follow-Up |
Cohort Map and Contact
All Commission-approved program sponsors have been assigned a color cohort for the purposes of accreditation activities. A list of institutions and their assigned color cohort may be found here.
The cohort map provides a schedule of required activities for each color cohort. A link to the cohort maps and schedule by year can be found at: Accreditation Schedule of Activities.
The color cohort email allows programs to communicate with a specified cohort consultant. All contact information can be found on the PSD Contact Information webpage.
Cohort Map | |
---|---|
Red | psdRed@ctc.ca.gov |
Orange | psdOrange@ctc.ca.gov |
Yellow | psdYellow@ctc.ca.gov |
Green | psdGreen@ctc.ca.gov |
Blue | psdBlue@ctc.ca.gov |
Indigo | psdIndigo@ctc.ca.gov |
Violet | psdViolet@ctc.ca.gov |
Additional Resources
Preconditions (Due March 31st in Years 1 and 4)
Program Review (Due October 15th in Year 5)
Common Standards (Due February 28th in year 5)
Site Visit (Year 6 Fall or Spring). Note: Site visit dates are scheduled approximately one year before the site visit takes place.
Accreditation Cohorts by Institution
Accreditation Schedule of Activities