Standard Pathway of Accreditation | NorthWest Arkansas Community College

Accreditation

Standard Pathway Reporting

NWACC participates in the Higher Learning Commission's Standard Pathway for reaffirmation of accreditation.

The Standard Pathway seeks to achieve the following goals:

To reduce the reporting burden on institutions by utilizing as much information and data as possible from existing institutional processes and collecting them in electronic form as they naturally occur over time
To enhance rigor by checking institutional data annually (institutional update) and conducting comprehensive evaluations twice in the ten-year cycle
To integrate, as much as possible, all HLC processes and requests for data into the reaffirmation of accreditation cycle

Cycle Year	Institutional Activity	Peer Review	HLC Decision-Making
Year 1 - 3 2021 – 2024	NWACC contributes documents to Evidence File to Assurance Argument	Peer Review of interim report	HLC Action on interim report
Year 4 2024	NWACC Submits Comprehensive Evaluation Materials	Peer Review Team Conducts Comprehensive Evaluation (with visit)	HLC Action on Comprehensive Evaluation
Year 5 - 9 2024-2029	NWACC contributes documents to Evidence Files to Assurance Argument	Peer Review of actions required of team based on review	HLC Action on actions required of peer review team required
Year 10 2029-2030	NWACC Submits Comprehensive Evaluation Materials	Peer Review Team conducts Comprehensive Evaluation (with visit)	HLC Action on Comprehensive Evaluation and Reaffirmation of Accreditation