The Council on Accreditation for Parks, Recreation, Tourism, and Related 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.