Charge

The Implementation Team on Accountability will address Recommendation 7 and two related implementation strategies from the report of the 21st Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges:

• Implement policies and practices that promote rigor, transparency, and accountability for results in community colleges.
  • Implement the Voluntary Framework of Accountability nationwide, while also developing strengthened approaches to measuring student learning and employment-related outcomes.
  • Implement state data systems that permit colleges to track students on their educational and career pathways. By following students into higher education and workforce, education leaders can demonstrate the employment-and wage-related impacts of a community college education…
  • …Simultaneously, they should work with states, funders, and national associations to develop a concise set of indicators of student progress and success.

Primary tasks include:

• Pull in related work by the Implementation Teams on Degree Quality and Closing the Skills Gap, using the products of their work to build on the Voluntary Framework of Accountability so that it includes appropriate measures of student learning and of employment-related outcomes of community college education.
• Serve as the steering group for the nationwide implementation (phase 3) of the Voluntary Framework of Accountability.
• Pursue collaborative efforts, including national organizations, philanthropy, and federal and state policymakers, to develop a parsimonious set of common metrics for assessing community college student progress and completion.
• Contribute information resources to the AACC 21st Century Center and the VFA website.