The Consortium Leadership And Renewal Academy (CLARA) is a year-long regional leadership information, development, and renewal program created for the member institutions of the North Texas Community College Consortium.
It serves entry-level and mid-level administrators who desire to improve their leadership and management abilities, update their knowledge, upgrade their skills, broaden their perspectives, prepare themselves for administrative advancement, and renew their commitment to higher education in the community college. It is also designed for faculty members and others interested in exploring careers in administration.
The Consortium Assessment Leadership Institute (CALI) provides faculty and administrators with knowledge and guidance to create effective assessment plans. Assessment is a critical component of education, but many have difficulty with the formal process. CALI was designed to break down the pieces of the assessment life-cycle and provide training and exercises for each component.
For effective assessment, faculty need to understand how to assess and how to use the results. Many faculty are not sure of how to define their assessment criteria and provide their measured results. Faculty often view the student learning outcome assessments as evaluation of their work as opposed to an opportunity for improvement. Once they have results, they may not be sure how to use these results to make changes in their classrooms. Training is needed for both new and experienced instructors so that they can create valid outcomes, provide pertinent results, and utilize the data to improve student learning.