Aligning postsecondary institutions to external standards with relational databases

Abstract

Administrators of higher education are all too familiar with aligning their institutions to a high volume of standards, regulations, and other external criteria. Managing the alignment of those standards to curricula and policies may be perceived as an insurmountable task, often leading to haphazard and inconsistent documentation methods from department to department. Alignments of standards to one aspect of the university may be out of sync with a similar alignment produced in another area. The development of a relational database of standards can greatly improve an institution’s effectiveness in demonstrating alignment. Such an approach is not limited to institutions that utilize a competency-based model, but it does provide a logical method to demonstrate their alignment; competency statements are poised to demonstrate how external elements are addressed in a program.

These categories of entities are certainly not exhaustive, but they demonstrate the need for institutions to catalog and organize their approach methodically when aligning programs and policies to external elements.

Whether searching for a standard, regulation, rule, or any other external element, there is no single source of data that contain all elements in one repository. Usually, elements are published in a variety of official sources across the Internet. When an institution is ready to audit its compliance with external elements, it must first identify and retrieve the official publication, review it, and begin the painstaking process of mapping out the alignment of programs and policies. Then, this process is repeated for each individual entity with which the institution must align.

A carefully designed relational database can play a critical role in an institution’s approach to aligning with external entities. This author’s institution has developed a Standards and Regulatory Tracking database, referred to using the acronym STaRT. While the design and function of the STaRT database is customized to the institution’s unique model and program offerings, the general description of standards database applications is applicable to all institutions of higher learning.

An entity relationship diagram is illustrated in Figure 1. This diagram does not contain every field for every table, but provides a general conception of the structure and relationship of the database. The Standards Objects described above are located in the left column of the database. The Curriculum Objects are in the right column, and the Alignment Objects in the center column.

The objects are linked together with a hierarchical (parent/child) model, using tables for entities, collections, parent elements, and child elements. For example, Figure 1 shows tables for Body, Collection, Parent Element, and Child Element. The Body represents an external entity as a whole. A Body is a parent to the Collections of the Body, as one body may have one or more Collections of standards. A Collection is a parent to Parent Elements, which are usually the names of standards themselves such as. Finally, a Parent Element is a parent to Child Elements, which are usually the individual indicators of a standard.

An example of this hierarchical relationship in Figure 1 is the following: The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities is a Body. The 2020 NWCCU Standards is a Collection and a child of this parent Body. “Standard One – Institutional Mission” is a child of the collection and referred to as a general Parent Element. Indicators 1.A.1, 1.B.1, 1.B.2, and so forth, are child elements. They are each a child of the parent element, “Standard One – Institutional Mission.”

Using a series of primary and foreign keys (labeled as “PK” and “FK” in Figure 1), each of these objects is linked in the relational database to each other. Each stand-alone table has at least one attribute in common with another object. This set of relationships enables customized reports to show all relevant data about an alignment: including the name of the entity and URL source of the standards, the course title, version, number of credits, and related programs. Compiling these data in a single report is invaluable, and further elaboration is provided in the section on functionality below.

When accounting for multiple programs and all 50 states, it is not surprising to consider how many total child elements are included.

The alignments in our institution’s database are primarily designed to show a link between external elements and internal curricula elements. Depending on the scope of the external element, it may be appropriate to link the element to a competency, course, or assessment item. For example, one state standard may require prospective teacher candidates to complete a “3 semester hour course on reading comprehension for elementary students.” The verbiage in this standard is most appropriate for alignment to a course as a whole, as the standard specifically calls out an entire course. Another entity may have a standard that says: “[Candidates] implement systematic instruction in teaching reading comprehension and monitoring strategies.” This standard is a strong candidate for alignment to one or more competency statements.

A competency-based education model provides an especially rich opportunity to demonstrate how programs are aligned to standards, especially when a competency is found in multiple courses. In this case, the database only contains a single link of the individual competency to a standard. However, an alignment report can show how that standard is addressed at multiple points throughout the program.

While the focus of our database is on curricula alignments, not all external elements are applicable to curriculum alignments. Many elements address university policy and procedure. There may be great value in creating additional objects for university policies and linking them in the database as well. In addition, a university may wish to collect elements for states where they do not yet operate or have program approval; the collection of these elements may help the university consider its readiness for expansion to new areas. The ability to quickly query and compare standards is an invaluable feature of a relational database.

These records are growing as we work on a continuous basis to document and record all new and existing alignments to external elements.

The following is a sample list of use cases of the database:

If resources were not a limit, the ideal environment for tracking standards and their alignments to curricula would include a uniquely developed application with a clean user interface. The institution should designate internal subject matter experts who are qualified and authorized to align internal elements to external elements.

In reality, resources are indeed limited. If no resources exist to develop a software application, consider appointing a compliance database manager (the title of this author). Depending on the scope of your database, one or more appointed staff can design the relational database, load all external data, and oversee the maintenance of these data. A database manager must continuously update the data as external entities update their elements. Any industry standard database software is appropriate for this task, including Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft Access (for single users), and many others.

The author’s institution employs a compliance database manager to oversee the collection and maintenance of standards and officially record the alignments of those standards to curriculum elements. The database manager works closely with program development faculty, including managers of compliance and program chairs, to take inventory of all alignment documentation as it is created and to add alignment records to the database. All documentation that supports the alignments is saved the file locations of these assets are recorded in the alignment tables. Upon request, the database manager runs queries, reports, and dashboards for faculty to utilize as they monitor how their programs are aligned (or pending alignment) to specific collections of standards. Finally, a team of compliance specialists tracks changes to external elements and informs the database manager when updates are required.

A centralized repository of external elements and alignment data provides high value for postsecondary institutions. Any faculty or staff who are responsible to demonstrate how the university aligns to external standards should have a designated, maintained, and backed-up source of data. In addition, a centralized source of these data prevents inconsistent alignment documentation; one faculty member may prepare an alignment of standards only to have a different faculty member prepare a different version several months later, especially if there is no awareness of an alignment that has already been created. The database prevents this duplication by having a single source for all alignment activities. In addition, utilizing the university’s formal database application ensures that all data are supported with backup, restoration, and other maintenance functions to protect the data from loss.

The use cases provided above further demonstrate the value of maintaining standards in a relational database. It eliminates the need to scour the Internet in search of standards and enables users to draw comparisons immediately and search for key phrases with the simple execution of a script.

The importance of accreditation, approval, and authorization cannot be emphasized enough. Students seek out accredited programs for assurance that their education is high quality. Employers and community stakeholders seek out graduates from programs that have some form of external review and validation. Therefore, the work of aligning external standards to internal elements is crucial for the success of the university. Managing the relationship of these elements in a central database can provide powerful benefits for postsecondary institutions.

The research, review, and maintenance of over 100,000 data elements are substantial. External entities frequently update their elements. In addition to the regular review and auditing of collections to ensure no changes have occurred, there is significant work to maintain alignment records. The database manager must query expiring elements against the alignment tables. If alignments exist and a new version of the external element has launched, the database manager must coordinate with subject matter experts to ensure new versions of the alignment are recorded.

In addition to managing updates to external elements, the database manager must carefully monitor all curriculum updates. If a new course or program version is under development, the database manager must be involved early in the process to determine what alignments exist for the previous curriculum version. Reports should be prepared for curriculum developers that show all alignments for existing curriculum versions, followed by reports of new course versions with missing alignments.

An additional challenge to consider is the technology and support required for an effective relational database. Institutions must consider whether this is a role within the IT department, compliance department, faculty, or some combination of multiple areas. University administration must carefully coordinate these efforts across multiple departments to ensure that the data being recorded are complete and accurate. Alignment reports are only as reliable as the data within them, and this reliability requires cooperation from all areas of the institution that play a role in creating the alignment documentation. Institutions with decentralized administration may find this coordination more challenging.

There may be other innovative and effective approaches to implementing a standards database. A literature review conducted by this author suggests that the topic has not received substantial contributions from the academic community.

The management of external elements and their alignment to curriculum standards is crucial for an institution’s ability to demonstrate compliance for accreditation, approval, and authorization. While some institutions may be tempted to decentralize this process and allow for individual departments to create and save their own documentation, a centralized relational database will promote consistency, accuracy, and efficiency. Designing the right queries and reports will support an institution as it navigates compliance with hundreds of external collections. Institutions who use a competency-based model have a particularly strong opportunity to map alignments to standards in a relational database.