NCA Program Review Standards: Background, Application, and Data

Academic program review has become a consistent and integral part of the life of a Communication Department. Nationally, program review began as part of the assessment movement, and has taken its place as a regular feature in higher education. Program review generally has two purposes—to demonstrate program effectiveness and to serve as data for department planning. The National Communication Association initiated the development of program review standards for communication departments. After the National Communication Association approved an initial draft, a task force was formed to finalize the standards, to develop supporting material, and to gather departmental data to be used for comparison purposes. This article describes the background for the standards, discusses the application of the standards, presents the data gathered, and suggests application of both the standards and the data.