January 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 53

COAPRT Update

HE COUNCIL ON ACCREDITATION FOR PARKS, RECREATION,
TOURISM, A ND REL ATED PROFESSIONS (COAPRT) held its fall
meeting and hearings at the 2012 NRPA Congress in Anaheim, California. The below points summarize key items discussed during the meeting.
Council members served as visitors
during the past year to gain familiarity with implementation of the new
standards, establish visitation procedures, and develop visitor training.
Pilot programs agreed to assign a faculty member who has been trained as
a visitor under the 2013 standards for
service as a " shadow " visitor, thereby further adding to the pool of visitors familiar with the new standards.
Council members will continue to serve as lead visitors for the 2012-2013 visits.
With a substantial number
of visitations scheduled for
2013-2014, the Council will
conduct a comprehensive
required visitor training at
the 2013 Congress in Houston.
The Council has partnered with
other professional organizations
to develop Specialty Accreditation
Committees (SAC) that will draft profession-speciﬁc learning outcome
standards, which will replace the option standards. A specialization in
recreation and park administration
is available through our partnership
with the American Academy for Park
and Recreation Administration. The
Council has reinitiated a dialogue
with the Society of Outdoor Recreation Professionals on a second Specialty Accreditation, and they hope to
have that program available by 2014.
Development of specialty standards in Therapeutic Recreation was
undertaken by a group of former National Therapeutic Recreation Society

members. Their approach was to draft
standards that are fully compliant with
the COAPRT 7.00 series. This approach
is consistent with the Council's desire
to work with any related profession
seeking accreditation. To be clear, the
Council does not endorse the standards
for any specialty; rather, its role is to accredit programs meeting all standards
including the 7.00 series as addressed
by the program.

Additional signiﬁcant changes to the
2013 Standards, handbook, self-study
review, and visitation and hearing processes also were adopted at the fall 2012
meeting.
The Council's scope, on ﬁle with
Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), is as follows:
COAPRT accredits baccalaureate
programs in parks, recreation, tourism,
sport management, event management,
therapeutic recreation, and leisure studies within the United States, its territories, Canada, and Mexico.
The Council adopted a new evaluation rubric for the 7.00 Series (Learning
Outcome Standards). To better reﬂect
the transitional phase many programs
experience, the Council has adopted a
rubric designed to better reﬂect where
a program is in the adoption process.

The Council will instruct visitors who
submitted reports during the current
year to employ the new rubric in reassessing the 7.00 Series and submit
updated reports for Council consideration. Upon Council approval, revised
assessments will be sent to each program. The Council sincerely regrets
any misunderstandings that may have
been created as standards and evaluative measures have been reﬁned leading
up to full adoption on January 1, 2013.
Programs scheduled for visitation
during the 2013-14 academic year are
invited to submit assessment plans for
Council review and feedback during the
current academic year. The
Council extends this invitation owing to a very light visitation schedule in 2012-2013.
Copies of the assessment
plans are to be submitted no
later than September 6, 2013.
The annual report form is
being revised by a Council subcommittee to better reﬂect the 2013 Standards.
CHEA representative attended the fall
2012 COAPRT meeting and hearings in
Anaheim. The COAPRT reaccreditation
hearing is scheduled for March 2013.
COAPRT accredited/reaccredited
programs participated in the 2012 NRPA's Best of the Best ceremony and the
Council co-sponsored the third-annual
academic Quiz Bowl at the 2012 NRPA
Congress. The winning team from Cal
Poly San Luis Obispo was crowned as
the national quiz bowl champion.
For any questions regarding academic accreditation or to access any
abovementioned forms, visit www.
nrpa.org/Professional-Development/
Accreditation/COAPRT/COAPRTPolicies-Procedures-Forms or contact
coaprt@nrpa.org.

WWW.NRPA.ORG | JANUARY 2013 |

Parks & Recreation

January 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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