MJC's Accreditation Report

I hope this finds each of you enjoying this sunny afternoon.  The sunshine reminds me that our semester is not only Spring in name, but that springtime is right around the corner. 

The accrediting commission, ACCJC, responded with our Peer Review Team Report.  This is the final evaluation document that we have been waiting for.  To see the complete document, please visit our accreditation website where the Report and Action Letter are posted. 

Before summarizing the content of the Report, I want to say Thank You once again to everyone who contributed.  In particular, Katie Cochran and Mike Smedshammer, two members of the immediate Accreditation team, did incredible work and invested unknown hours to get the work done.  Thank you also to all of you who contributed from your desks and responded promptly when we needed a bit of evidence or data or even an entire section.  Without your contributions, we would not have had such a successful outcome.  

First, the findings:

“The Commission acted to Reaffirm Accreditation for 18 months and Require a Follow-Up, due no later than March 1, 2026, followed by a visit from a peer review team.”

The subject of the follow-up:

“Standard 2.6, Policy on Distance Education and Correspondence Education (College Requirement 1): In order to meet the Standard, the Commission requires the College ensures regular and substantive interaction is occurring in all its distance education courses.”

In the coming months, you should be hearing from your constituencies how together we will address this Recommendation.

The following are the Peer Review team's General Observations of each Standard:

Standard 1

“Modesto Junior College (MJC) clearly defines its mission with a commitment to students. The mission is explicit in its commitment to equitable student achievement. The College’s mission guides organizational structures and planning processes to align resources and establish meaningful and ambitious goals for institutional improvement. College planning and evaluation of programs and services are designed to support the mission's accomplishment and ensure continuous quality improvement.”

Standard 2

“In alignment with its mission, Modesto Junior College delivers high-quality academic and learning support programs that engage and support its students through their unique educational journeys. Academic and learning support programs promote equitable student success, and the College evaluates student learning and achievement data to inform improvements and advance equitable outcomes.”

Standard 3

“Modesto Junior College (MJC) has established policies and practices in the administrative areas of budget and financial management, human resources, infrastructure, and facilities management to support the academic enterprise. The College promotes diversity in hiring and provides professional development opportunities to its personnel, while evaluating employees regularly according to their classification. The College largely aligns its fiscal resources according to its mission and goals and appears appropriately financially solvent according to District and College policies. The facilities and physical resources are maintained to ensure safety and compliance as well as to facilitate student learning.”

Standard 4

“Modesto Junior College endorses the principles of academic freedom, integrity and inquiry through board policy and administrative practices. The College has strong effective governance processes in place that engage all constituency groups in decision-making that supports the College mission, vision and values. The College has developed processes to ensure that progress is being made to advance equitable student outcomes utilizing the Indicators of Achievement Tracker. However, the tracker is brand new and will not be implemented until the end of this academic year 2024. The governing board receives regular reports on the College’s educational and student support programs, however, at the time of the ISER review had not yet received any updates on the new Strategic or Educational Master Plan. During the Focused Site Visit, the team verified that the Board had received updates on the new plan. The board tends to act as one unit once decisions are made and meetings are held with decorum and best practices.”

As we see above, there is much to be proud of at MJC, and it's gratifying to see it documented by an outside source such as ACCJC.  As with many thorough evaluations, we learn where we have to improve and where to focus our energies.  And that's what we'll do.