The Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) and accreditation staff are implementing new procedures for assessing a program’s compliance with Standard 1.9–Public Information, including an early notification system when not all requirements are in place.
- Checklist – As part of the CAA’s educational initiatives in 2021, the Council developed a checklist that a program can use to self-evaluate its webpages at least annually. The elements on the checklist are specific to the accreditation status statement, the student outcome data, and their labeling—the three requirements in Standard 1.9 that are the most frequently cited as noncompliant.
- Staff Review and Outreach – When a program submits an annual report or application, staff conduct an administrative review of the report. This review will now include a review of the program’s website to assess compliance with the elements of CAA’s Standard 1.9–Public Information related to the accreditation status statement, student outcome data, and their labeling. Staff will alert a program if there are elements that may not meet CAA’s standard to allow the program to address any issues expeditiously and avoid any noncompliance citations.
- Timelines to Comply – If staff identify any issues, the program is expected to address any concerns as soon as possible; the CAA will review the website at the point of decision, and if the program does not address the concerns, the CAA will result in a noncompliance citation. If any requirement for review for Standard 1.9 was also cited as noncompliance in the previous report, a second consecutive citation by the CAA will result in a probation decision.
The CAA continues to develop and provide guidelines to programs to ensure full compliance with Standard 1.9–Public Information every year. An “Ask the CAA” post was dedicated to this topic in 2021: What is needed to comply with all requirements of Standard 1.9?
Program Checklist
The CAA developed a checklist for programs to use related to the three most cited requirements under Standard 1.9–Public Information:
- Fact check your website—at least annually!
- Does the accreditation statement have ALL elements? (Including degree abbreviation, the word "education," and the listing of all included modalities?)
- Are the student data labeled as "Student Achievement Data" or "Student Outcome Data"?
- Are the outcome data separated by professional area and modality (if applicable)?
- Do you have the number AND percentage for each of the required outcomes listed?
- Do the data reflect the last 3 mostly recently completed years?
- Are the specific academic years listed, so that timelines are clear to a potential student?
- Do you have written policies and procedures for updating the website content at least annually? Where do you keep that document kept for faculty/staff to reference? Does it specify when the program data will be updated?
Direct any questions to accreditation@asha.org.