[Aer-university-standards] AER URC Update

[janetbern at aim.com]

Hi Sara,

I am a CLCT and a VI teacher in Louisiana.  How do you decide which university programs to review?  How does one become part of the university review committee?
Thank you,
Janet Bernhardt






-----Original Message-----
From: Sara Sellers <sara at aerbvi.org>
To: aer-university-standards at lists.aerbvi.org.
Sent: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 11:15 am
Subject: [Aer-university-standards] AER URC Update




The 2006-2008 University Review Committees (06/08URC) was charged with collecting information to make a recommendation to the AER Board whether to continue to conduct the university review process within AER (“in-house”) or to move to an outside agency to handle the review process (“outsource”).  After considerable research and contact with existing certification agencies other than AER, the 06/08 URC recommended to the board that AER continue to conduct in-house reviews.  This recommendation was approved April 13, 2007.  

 

The 06/08 URC began the process of putting together a proposal for eventual recommendation to the Board for a new in-house review process.  The following decisions have been made regarding the recommended proposal:

 

The new review process will no longer be conducted by the individual divisions.  A standardized review process will be developed that will be conducted by an AER University Review Committee that is comprised of members from all AER divisions.  

 

The 06/08 URC will take the role of developing a proposal for recommendation to the Board regarding what we have labeled “administrative standards” or standards regarding the process of review.  The determination of “curricular standards” will be left to each respective division.  The proposal for recommendation regarding the new review process then will contain a combination of standards developed by the 06/08 URC and the respective divisions.  

 

The 06/08 URC then spent approximately 3 months reviewing the literature and contacting other professional agencies that conduct in-house university review processes.  The information obtained, as well as data regarding the current AER O&M, VRT, and TVI review processes was compiled into a 52-page document.  In August, the 06/08 URC began making initial decisions regarding the proposed process to be recommended to the Board.    

  

The following are decisions the 06/08 URC has made regarding a new University Review Process to be recommended to the AER Board at the April 2008 Board meeting. These decisions will be revisited as necessary as the total proposal is being developed.   

 

Initial and continuing review

The total university review process will consist of two different types of review:

initial, interim/yearly follow-up, and continuing.


Initial review – The initial review will be a “standards review” that will consist of evaluating whether the program is providing an acceptable level of training in the standards for the profession.  


The 06/08 URC decided to focus on developing administrative standards for only the initial review process.  It is probable that the 08/10 committee will need to develop procedures for the continuing review process.

All existing and new university programs will be required to go through the new initial review process once it has been developed and approved by the Board.

All currently approved programs will be granted extensions of their approval to allow for development and phasing in of the new review process.


Interim/Yearly follow-up – A yearly checklist will be completed by approved programs to provide yes/no answers regarding whether any of the components approved in the initial review had changed.  The URC will decide if an interim review will be needed depending on the amount and depth of change made by the program.  The committee will also decide the appropriate process to follow for the interim review.

Continuing review – The school under review will conduct a self-study of the progress made on goals determined in the initial or previous continuing review.  The continuing review will consist of an evaluation of that report. 


 

AER University Review Committee structure


Composition – A committee of 30 members will provide a pool of reviewers for the individual reviews as they come up.


o       The committee will be comprised of 16 O&M, 8 TVI, 6 VRT division members.  This reflects the proportion of programs in each division needing to be reviewed. 

o       18 members will be university faculty, 12 practitioners. 

§         Every attempt will be made to have 1/3 of the members with prior experience serving on the AER URC Committee.

·        Qualifications – 

o       All members must be active members of their appropriate AER division.

o       All members must have at least 3 years work experience in visual impairments.

o       Practitioner members must be certified by ACVREP or hold state teacher certification in visual impairments.

o       University faculty must hold a permanent position and at least 3 years experience at the university level.


Length of term – 4 years, with staggered terms.  Members can serve multiple terms with approval of chair of the committee.

Training – Members will be required to attend one afternoon of training at each biennial conference (with one off cycle training to get started).  Training will pertain to committee, panel, and site visit responsibilities.

Compensation – Members financially compensated.  


NOTE: decisions regarding all financial matters will be referred to the AER Board and Finance Committee.  The Finance Committee and/or executive director will put together a financial proposal that will be considered by the current URC before the final recommendations will be agreed upon.  The current URC may need to change the proposed recommendations to balance for a reasonable cost to the universities.


Specific review panel – Each review panel will be comprised of 5 members of the committee


3 from area being review – 2 others divisions

3 university faculty


NOTE:  It was decided that all university programs will need to be initially reviewed under the new procedures and standards.  This will mean that initial reviews will need to be staggered so they do not need to be conducted at the same time.



Site visit team – It was decided that a site visit would be required for initial approval.


2 members from the review panel will make up a site visit team.

At least 1 should be university faculty and at least 1 of the members should be from the division(s) being reviewed.  The same person could fulfill both of these requirements.


NOTE:  Since there are many divisions that include TVIs, URC members for reviewing TVI programs could include members from TVI educational service divisions as well as Division 17 members.


The university being reviewed can challenge the inclusion of any member on the site visit (procedures and allowable reasons for doing this will be specified once the current URC starts making decisions about overall procedures).



 

Types of approval


Levels – Programs will be either approved or not approved (no probationary or provisional approval)


If a program reapplies within 18 months there will be some financial “discount” (to be determined by AER administration) for re-application.

Each re-application starts with a clean slate and a new review panel.


University accreditation required – U.S. or regional higher education accreditation.  Universities outside the United States can request that their local accreditation system be accepted. 

Level of training offered by programs – Programs must offer a degree or university recognized certification.


 




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