Adult and Community Learning Services (ACLS)

Program Quality Review (PQR) Protocol and PQR Summative Report

Last year we received some really robust feedback about our Program Quality Review (PQR) process. ACLS is participating in a Center wide project called "Monitoring Moves". The Monitoring Moves project will be a kaizen-driven professional learning community—to promote improvement of our policies, protocols, and practices—e.g. "moves" (what we actually do when communicating and visiting on site). In order to seek ongoing feedback we will survey all programs who receive a PQ review in FY20.

It is our goal to monitor programs with a "state as partner" mindset that assures programs achieve strong outcomes for students (program quality) and follow applicable laws, regulations, standards and ethical practices (compliance). In addition, we are striving for our policies, protocols and practices to be mission-centered and guided by ujima (individual/collective responsibility) and stewardship with the purpose of providing high quality feedback and technical assistance that motivates providers to self-reflect and improve.

Based on our own self-reflection, we have made the following improvements to the FY20 PQR process. First, the questions used during interviews have been revised slightly in an effort to provide greater clarity. Also, in the questions where they occur, key terms have been defined as part of the lead-in, or preface, to those questions.

Second, the language for some of the rubrics that are used to determine ratings has been revised. The rubrics can be found in the recently updated Program Quality Review Protocol. This document replaces the previous Program Quality Review and Site Visit Protocol document. In doing this, ACLS made the decision to separate the site visit protocol from that of program quality reviews. Upon completion, ACLS will post a revised Site Visit Protocol to the website and notify the field.

Finally, I encourage you to read the Fiscal Year 2019 Program Quality Review Summative Report. The report aggregates the data from each individual Program Quality Review Report that programs received upon completion of their review, and for each indicator, a table is provided summarizing the percentage of programs that received ratings of either Limited Evidence, Developing, Proficient, or Exemplary. Readers will find, under each indicator, a synopsis summarizing the main findings, a detailed narrative explaining the significance of the findings, and examples of specific programs who rated Exemplary in that indicator. Also included in the report are examples of programs that exhibited promising practices that can inform the wider field.