A

Accountability: When each person and the organization as a whole views service and commitment as the responsibilities to each other and the community as the basis of their actions rather than compliance.

Advanced Placement (AP) Courses: College-level courses taught in high school. Students may take an examination at the completion of the course; acceptable scores allow students to earn college credit toward a degree, certificate, or other formal award.

Appreciative Inquiry: A cooperative search for the best in people, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves the systematic discovery of what gives a system "life" when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and human terms.

Anticipatory Learning: A type of learning that creates positive images of the future.

AQIP (Academic Quality Improvement Program): A systems and process-centered approach to organizational improvement and accreditation which Kirkwood began in August, 2006 as part of the Kirkwood Futures Initiative. It contains nine (9) categories with a constant focus upon helping to measurably improve student learning.

AQIP Examiner: An 86 item online process-focused survey from the Higher Learning Commission completed by all faculty and staff to help Kirkwood gauge its progress in creating a culture of continuous improvement and to discover where the College can most profitably invest its efforts in the future. It provides a platform to examine each of Kirkwood's processes and their ability to create value for students and other stakeholders.

B

C

CIP Code: A six-digit code in the [IPEDS] form xx.xxxx that identifies instructional program specialties within educational institutions.

Cohort: A specific group of students established for tracking purposes.

Culture: Shared images of how Kirkwood employees, students, stakeholders, and partners treat one another, learn and work together while making improvements.

D

Diversity: When Kirkwood acknowledges and celebrates the unique talents and gifts of all people through its policies and practices.

Dual Credit: A program through which high school students are enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, taught at their high school, that fulfill high school graduation requirements and may earn the student college credits .

Dual Enrollment: A program through which high school students may enroll in college courses while still enrolled in high school. Students are not required to apply for admission to the college in order to participate.

E

F

FERPA (Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act): FERPA is the act that restricts the amount of information that can be given to potential employers, family members, our any other outside party, either in person or via the phone without the students written consent. Details may be obtained by contacting Enrollment Services, Kirkwood Hall 215.

Focus Wheel: A visual representation of the many interrelated components that the faculty and staff leaders use to set direction and build coherence for all College initiatives. (i.e. Strategic Goals and Action Plans - Instruction Departments, Strategic Goals and Action Plans - Service Departments).

Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) (enrollment): A measurement equal to one student enrolled full time for one academic year. Total FTE enrollment includes full time plus the calculated equivalent of the part-time enrollment. The full-time equivalent of the part-time students can be estimated using different factors depending on the type and control of institution and level of student.

G

Graduation Rate: The rate required for disclosure and/or reporting purposes under Student Right-to-Know. This rate is calculated as the total number of completers within 150% of normal time divided by the revised cohort minus any allowable exclusions.

H

I

Innovation: When each Kirkwood employee is encouraged to think and act creatively and boldly, ultimately coming up with new ideas, products, practices, and services to achieve Kirkwood's vision, mission, and key improvement priorities.

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS): The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). IPEDS began in 1986 and involves annual institution-level data collections. All postsecondary institutions that have a Program Participation Agreement with the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE), U.S. Department of Education are required to report data using a web-based data collection system. IPEDS currently consists of the following components: Institutional Characteristics (IC); Completions (C); Employees by Assigned Position (EAP); Fall Staff (S); Salaries (SA); Enrollment (EF); Graduation Rates (GRS); Finance (F); and Student Financial Aid (SFA).

IPEDS: Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Key Performance Indicators: The College's cross-functional categories of outcomes that must be intentionally coming up with new ideas, products, practices, and services to achieve Kirkwood's vision, mission, and key improvement priorities.

J

K

KQIP (Kirkwood Quality Improvement Program): The College's department-based approach to continuous improvement resulting with department visions, strategic goals, and action plans since 2003.

L

M

Metrics: The measures the College uses to study system progress, program and project success.

Mission: A statement or statements which describe the purpose of the college and what value we bring to students and stakeholders. (Kirkwood's mission:  Identify community needs; Provide accessible, quality education and training; Promote opportunities for lifelong learning.)

N

O

Organizational Democracy: The application of democratic principles to an organizational context where each person is treated justly, where power is shared among people at all levels of the College, where all individuals understand their unique roles and contribution to the achievement of collective goals.

P

Part-Time Staff (employees): As determined by the institution. The type of appointment at the snapshot date determines whether an employee is full time or part time. The employee's term of contract is not considered in making the determination of full or part time. Casual employees (hired on an ad-hoc basis or occasional basis to meet short-term needs) and students in the College Work-Study Program (CWS) are not considered part-time staff.

Part-Time Student: Undergraduate—A student enrolled for either 11 semester credits or less, or 11 quarter credits or less, or less than 24 contact hours a week each term. Graduate—A student enrolled for either 8 semester credits or less, or 8 quarter credits or less.

Principles: Mutual respect and integrity are Kirkwood's principles which govern all employees' behaviors and drive the consequences of these behaviors.

Professional Staff: Employees of an institution whose primary function or occupational activity is classified as one of the following: faculty; executive, administrative, managerial or other professional.

Program to Evaluate Academic Quality Program (PEAQ): A traditional ten year accreditation model sponsored by the Higher Learning Commission used by Kirkwood until 2005.

Q

R

Results: Stated, documented measurables (data and artifacts) studied after a defined process to strengthen future performance.

Retention Rate: A measure of the rate at which students persist in their educational program at an institution, expressed as a percentage. This is the percentage of first-time degree/certificate-seeking students from the previous fall who either re-enrolled or successfully completed their program by the current fall.

S

Standardized Admission Tests: Tests prepared and administered by an agency that is independent of any postsecondary education institution. Tests provide information about prospective students and their academic qualifications relative to a national sample. Examples are the SAT and the ACT.

Structure: How Kirkwood organizes itself to make decisions to best achieve its strategic, operational, and tactical goals, objectives, and performance standards.

Student Right-to-Know Act: Also known as the "Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security Act" (P.L. 101-542), which was passed by Congress November 9, 1990. Title I, Section 103, requires institutions eligible for Title IV funding to disclose completion or graduation rates of certificate- or degree-seeking, full-time students entering an institution to all students and prospective students. Further, Section 104 requires each institution that participates in any Title IV program and is attended by students receiving athletically-related student aid to annually submit a report to the Secretary. This report is to contain, among other things, graduation/completion rates of all students as well as students receiving athletically-related student aid by race/ethnicity and gender and by sport, and the average completion or graduation rate for the four most recent years. These data are also required to be disclosed to parents, coaches, and potential student athletes when the institution offers athletically-related student aid. The Graduation Rates component of IPEDS was developed specifically to help institutions respond to these requirements.

T

Talent Development: When colleagues intentionally seek to identify each person's natural ability (abilities not acquired through effort), their strengths (what individuals demonstrate consistently in terms of near perfect performance in an activity), their interests (values influenced by personal involvement decisions), and their affinities (activities that draw individuals into...through minimal effort) in order to advance the College or an initiative.

Transfer-Out Rate: Total number of students who are known to have transferred out of the reporting institution within 150% of normal time to completion divided by the revised cohort minus allowable exclusions.

Transparency: When ideas flow freely and information is openly and responsibly shared.

U

V

Values: Open communication, partnerships, lifelong learning, servant leadership, excellence and innovation are the social norms and beliefs that emotionally guide our individual and collective actions, conduct, and how Kirkwood does business.

Vision: A bold statement of what Kirkwood is striving to reach through the collective efforts of all faculty, staff, stakeholders, and partners. (Kirkwood's Vision Statement: To invent, develop, and deliver learning solutions for the 21st century.)

W

Work Process Groups: Faculty, staff, and administrators tasked to ensure that the Kirkwood Futures Initiative process is focused, moving forward, open and inclusive, culminating in useful results.

X

Y

Z