Presented for Public Comment - May 2021

Master’s Degree: Outcomes Standards and Assessment Document 
Over the course of the past two years the Council on Accreditation for Parks, Recreation, Tourism and Related Professionals (COAPRT) has been reviewing opportunities for further development and enhancement of accreditation related to our profession. During this time, the Council has developed a concept to accredit master’s degree programs in parks, recreation, tourism and related professions.

Within the Council there has been much input and dialogue on this concept, and now we are requesting input from accredited programs. Your input will be used to enhance and modify the standards and to make a final determination if COAPRT should proceed with accrediting master’s degrees in the field. If you have any questions on the concept outside of what is provided in the survey, please contact Chris Nunes, Ph.D, CPRE at cnunes@thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov.

Thank you for your time and thoughts on this matter, it is essential to helping us determine the next steps and to improve upon the initial concept.

[Click Here] for link to the document.
COAPRT Accreditation Standards

Programs seeking accreditation must demonstrate compliance with each of the following standards. For many standards, self-study authors will find that evidence demonstrating compliance resides within an existing, on-line institutional policy and procedure manual or related document. In such cases, authors may (a) copy the relevant material and paste that information into a “hard copy” self-study, or (b) provide the URL address of the specific on-line information that addresses the standard. If the URL approach is used, authors shall provide URLs pointing directly to the specific evidence requested for each standard, rather than to a more general document.

Standard 4.03, for example, indicates: The program shall utilize strategic hiring practices intended to result in a faculty that varies in education, training, institutions attended, gender, ethnicity, race, age, and other elements of diversity. Such information might be available in an on-line policy and procedure manual of the institution. In that case, the self-study author may provide the URL to that specific policy within the manual (e.g., directly linked to the page and paragraph); this may be accomplished most effectively through the use of hotlinks within the self-study. It is not acceptable to provide the URL to the general policy and procedure manual, leaving reviewers to find the relevant policy within that more general document. Programs are also fully responsible for assuring that all links are viable. Authors shall verify that all links are active at the time the self-study is forwarded to COAPRT and visitors. Reviewers will not search further for evidence of compliance if links are not working or if links do not reveal information related to the standard being evaluated.

T