Seeking Carnegie Classification

UIW is seeking the prestigious Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Elective Community Engagement Classification. We encourage faculty to document the ways that they encourage student engagement through community service and service learning, and to document their own scholarship of engagement. The Faculty Self Inventory form now invites faculty to list Service Learning and the Ettling Center for Civic Engagement encourages faculty to send brief stories of successful service learning.

UIW is moving towards the next accreditation deadline 2020. Here is introductory information on what is needed https://www.brown.edu/academics/college/swearer/carnegie-community-engagement-classification but the actual application won’t be released until May.

This is an informal summary of the 2015 program with a link to specific details at the end:

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Elective Community Engagement Classification

What Is the Community Engagement Classification?

The Carnegie Foundation's Classification for Community Engagement is an elective classification, meaning that it is based on voluntary participation by institutions. The elective classification involves data collection and documentation of important aspects of institutional mission, identity and commitments, and requires substantial effort invested by participating institutions. It is an institutional classification; it is not for systems of multiple campuses or for part of an individual campus.

The classification is not an award. It is an evidence-based documentation of institutional practice to be used in a process of self-assessment and quality improvement. The documentation is reviewed to determine whether the institution qualifies for recognition as a community engaged institution.

The Community Engagement Classification takes place on a five-year cycle. The next opportunity for institutions to apply for classification will be during the 2020 cycle (which will open in 2018).

In addition to the Elective Community Engagement Classification, the Carnegie Foundation also provides its all-inclusive classifications based on secondary analysis of existing national data. Information on the all-inclusive classifications can be found at http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/.

Three categories:

Curricular Engagement (2006 and 2008) includes institutions where teaching, learning and scholarship engage faculty, students, and community in mutually beneficial and respectful collaboration. Their interactions address community-identified needs, deepen students’ civic and academic learning, enhance community well-being, and enrich the scholarship of the institution.

Outreach & Partnerships (2006 and 2008) includes institutions that provided compelling evidence of one or both of two approaches to community engagement. Outreach focuses on the application and provision of institutional resources for community use with benefits to both campus and community. Partnerships focuses on collaborative interactions with community and related scholarship for the mutually beneficial exchange, exploration, and application of knowledge, information, and resources (research, capacity building, economic development, etc.).

Curricular Engagement and Outreach & Partnerships (2006, 2008, and 2010) includes institutions with substantial commitments in both areas described above.

Community Engagement Definition

Community engagement describes the collaboration between institutions of higher education and their larger communities (local, regional/state, national, global) for the mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources in a context of partnership and reciprocity.

The purpose of community engagement is the partnership of college and university knowledge and resources with those of the public and private sectors to enrich scholarship, research, and creative activity; enhance curriculum, teaching and learning; prepare educated, engaged citizens; strengthen democratic values and civic responsibility; address critical societal issues; and contribute to the public good. Community engagement describes activities that are undertaken with community members. In reciprocal partnerships, there are collaborative community-campus definitions of problems, solutions, and measures of success. Community engagement requires processes in which academics recognize, respect, and value the knowledge, perspectives, and resources of community partners and that are designed to serve a public purpose, building the capacity individuals, groups, and organizations involved to understand and collaboratively address issues of public concern.

Foundational indicator:

  1. The institution formally recognizes community engagement through campus-wide awards and celebrations
  2. The institution have mechanisms for systematic assessment of community perceptions of the institution’s engagement with community
  3. The institution aggregate and use all of its assessment data related to community engagement
  4. Community engagement is emphasized in the marketing materials (website, brochures, etc.) Of the institution
  5. Institution have a campus-wide coordinating infrastructure (center, office, etc.) to support and advance community engagement
  6. Internal budgetary allocations dedicated to supporting institutional engagement with community
  7. There are internal budgetary allocations dedicated to supporting institutional engagement with community
  8. There are external funding dedicated to supporting institutional engagement with community
  9. There is fundraising directed to community engagement
  10. The institution invests its financial resources in the community for purposes of community engagement and community development
  11. The institution maintains systematic campus-wide tracking or documentation mechanisms to record and/or track engagement with the community. The institution uses the data from those mechanisms.
  12. The institution use the data from the assessment mechanisms
  13. Community engagement defined is and planned for in the strategic plans of the institution
  14. The institution provide professional development support for faculty and/or staff who engage with community
  15. The community have a “voice” or role for input into institutional or departmental planning for community engagement
  16. There are institutional level policies for promotion (and tenure at tenure-granting campuses) that specifically reward faculty scholarly work that uses community-engaged approaches and methods.
  17. Community engagement is rewarded as one form of teaching and learning.
  18. There are college/school and/or department level policies for promotion (and tenure at tenure-granting campuses) that specifically reward faculty scholarly work that uses community-engaged approaches and methods. Or there is work in progress to revise promotion and tenure guidelines to reward faculty scholarly work that uses community-engaged approaches and methods.
  19. The community engagement is noted on student transcripts
  20. Community engagement is connected with diversity and inclusion work (for students and faculty) on your campus.
  21. Community engagement is connected to efforts aimed at student retention and success.

A. Curricular Engagement

Curricular Engagement describes the teaching, learning and scholarship that engages faculty, students, and community in mutually beneficial and respectful collaboration. Their interactions address community identified needs, deepen students’ civic and academic learning, enhance community well-being, and enrich the scholarship of the institution.

The institution has a definition, standard components, and a process for identifying service learning courses.

The institution has a database:

  • departments are represented by those courses
  • faculty taught service learning courses in the most recent academic year
  • students participated in service learning courses in the most recent academic year
  • provide a description of how the data provided

There are institutional (campus-wide) learning outcomes for students’ curricular engagement with community

Learning outcomes needs to be systematically assessed. (How is the assessment data used)

There are departmental or disciplinary learning outcomes for students’ curricular engagement with community. The outcomes are systematically assessed and used.

The community engagement integrated into the following curricular (for credit) activities:

  • Student Research
  • Student Leadership
  • Internships/Co-ops
  • Study Abroad

Community engagement has been integrated with curriculum on an institution-wide level in any of the following structures:

  • Graduate Studies
  • Core Courses
  • Capstone (Senior level project)
  • First Year Sequence
  • General Education
  • In the Majors
  • In Minors

There are examples of faculty scholarship associated with their curricular engagement achievements (research studies, conference presentations, pedagogy workshops, publications, etc.)?

B. Outreach and Partnerships

Outreach and Partnerships describe two different but related approaches to community engagement. The first focuses on the application and provision of institutional resources for community use. The latter focuses on collaborative interactions with community and related scholarship for the mutually beneficial exchange, exploration, and application of knowledge, information, and resources (research, capacity building, economic development, etc. The distinction between these two centers on the concepts of reciprocity and mutual benefit which are explicitly explored and addressed in partnership activities.

Outreach programs are developed for community:

  • learning centers
  • tutoring
  • extension programs
  • non-credit courses
  • evaluation support
  • training programs
  • professional development centers

The institutional resources are provided as outreach to the community:

  • co-curricular student service
  • work/study student placements
  • cultural offerings
  • athletic offerings
  • library services
  • technology
  • faculty consultation other (specify)

Description of representative examples of partnerships (both institutional and departmental) that were in place during the most recent academic year.

The institution or do the departments promote attention to the mutuality and reciprocity of the partnerships.

There are mechanisms to systematically collect and share feedback and assessment findings regarding partnerships, reciprocity and mutual benefit, both from community partners to the institution and from the institution to the community.

There are examples of faculty scholarship associated with their outreach and partnerships activities (technical reports, curriculum, research reports, policy reports, publications, etc.)

Read more specific details at the New England Higher Education website.