Operational Standards Self-Assessment for California Community College Districts

FCMAT has developed an Operational Standards Self-Assessment tool to help California community college districts best serve their respective communities within the conventional funding provided by state law and other traditional ongoing resources. FCMAT has ensured that the 107 questions in the operational standards are generally aligned with the four overarching Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) standards for two reasons:

1. Districts are familiar with the structure, verbiage and criteria.
2. Districts have identified leadership responsible for each standard.

Although this tool follows the ACCJC format, and many of the questions are related to a specific ACCJC standard, it is not intended to address every standard or modify the intent of the accreditation process.

The operational standards will help a district identify areas of the institution that make it unique but that may not be affordable and could therefore contribute to its fiscal distress. The findings that result from the questions should be further investigated by a district so that it can be aligned more closely with the operational intent of statewide funding for California community colleges.

The standards are broken into the following sections:

Operational Standards Self-Assessment for California Community College Districts