1. Employer Engagement in Accreditation
Crystal Calarusse, NASPAA
CHEA Annual Conference
January 2018
NASPAA. 40 years. Accredit graduate degrees for public service, notably MPA and MPP. Accredit globally. Medium size-200 programs. Recognized by CHEA.
I’m CAO. Been in accred for 12 years.

2. Why engage with employers?
To ensure
Relevant curriculum
Rigor and sufficiency in skill assessment
Overall effectiveness of accreditation as a process
Professional accreditor—central to who we are. Form the bridge between employers and academia.
They were strong motivators/voices for moving to competency based assessment and focusing on skills.

3. Who are NASPAA employers?
The degree program's primary focus shall be that of preparing students to be leaders, managers, and analysts in the professions of public affairs, public administration, and public policy
Not politicians, public administrators, managers, analysts, nonprofit leaders, program directors.
Challenge to engage because the profession is so diffuse and diverse. No licensure requirement for public service. Anyone can be in public service.
There is not one specific node of engagement. Many professional societies. Many types of employers. Many policy interests. Thus. Much of the student assessment has to happen at the degree program. There’s no field-wide specific tool to do that.

4. Lot of stuff graph to show a lot of stuff. Diversity
Lot of stuff graph to show a lot of stuff. Diversity. Not just government sector. Primarily US-based. This is not what all schools look like. Student careers now characterized by moving around through multiple sectors.
Need for many different approaches to public service education. Need an accreditation process with the flexibility to allow for this.

5. Student Competency Domains
The ability:
To lead and manage in public governance;
To participate in and contribute to the policy process;
To analyze, synthesize, think critically, solve problems and make decisions;
To articulate and apply a public service perspective;
To communicate and interact productively with a diverse and changing workforce and citizenry.
Shows why employer participation is so important. Allows for tremendous diversity of missions globally. Allows students to build broad skills transferable across different types of organizations and sectors. Programs define their own competencies within these areas.

6. Employer Inclusion Accreditation Governance and Peer Review
On review bodies; on every site visit
Standards-setting
On standards writing committees, focus groups, surveys
Program-level engagement
Validation of individual program’s curricular choices
Assessment of the rigor of curriculum and preparedness of graduates
Guide the overall public impact of the program
Ensuring all voices are heard and balanced.
Full members on review bodies. Site visitors matched to the mission of the program. There for accountability. Engage with employers and students.
Each piece of the profession might require a different approach. With feds, a single representative may be more effective. Niche groups can be reached at their conferences-emergency mgmt, procurement, diversity officers. Surveys good for tight networks like city managers. Influential in changing our comps to include soft skills.