The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), like other voluntary higher education accrediting agencies in the United States, evaluates an entire organization and accredits it as a whole. The evaluation covers formal educational activities, student academic achievement, governance and administration, financial stability, resources, admissions and student personnel services, organization effectiveness, and relationships with outside constituencies.
230 South LaSalle Street, Suite 7-500
Chicago, Illinois 60604-1413
Phone: 800.621.7440 / 312.263.0456
Fax: 312.263.7462
The HLC is one of two commission members of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), one of six U.S. regional institutional accreditation agencies. The HLC accredits, and thereby grants membership in the Commission and in the North Central Association, to degree-granting post-secondary educational institutions located in the North Central region of the United States. CCA has been accredited by the HLC since 1988.
Click here to visit the Higher Learning Commission Website
CCA participates in the HLC's Program to Evaluate and Advance Quality (PEAQ), one avenue for maintaining accreditation. The PEAQ program consists of an institutional self-study, an evaluation every ten years by a team of trained peer reviewers, and final decision-making by the Commission. CCA's next peer review team visit is scheduled for April 2013.
The college's Self Study Steering Committee has begun to organize CCA's study with working groups, organized around the HLC criteria for accreditation, to convene to gather and analyze data in the fall of 2011. The Steering Committee will use the reports from the working groups to develop the college's self study report during 2012 for submission in 2013.
Self Study Steering Committee
Richard Gentile, Dean of Instruction for Math, Science, and Public Service
Ruthanne Orihuela, Department Chair of Performing Arts and Humanities
Dr. Christopher Ward, Executive Director of Grants and Planning
All affiliated institutions complete the Commission's Annual Report on Organizational Information and Operational Indicators each year. The report provides the Commission with up-to-date information so it can understand and respond to significant shifts in an institution's capacity and/or scope of activities.
The College has submitted three reports to the Commission in the last decade:
Monitoring Report on Assessment of Student Learning 2006
Request for Change in Educational Sites (for concurrent enrollment) 2010
All were accepted by the Commission.
