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NASPAA Standards 2009: 
Defining Quality in Public Affairs Education

Proposed Development Approach

PHASE ONE: Development of Guiding Principles
                        (October 2006-October 2007) 
The revision begins with the development of a set of initial Guiding Principles to steer the revision process. These principles will address substantive goals related to the future needs of public service professionals and procedural aspects of accreditation. The inputs will derive from COPRA experiences, the anticipated future of public administration, evidence based trends, needs/resources of programs, alternative accreditation approaches and the political/national/international context of accreditation.

PHASE TWO: Development of NASPAA Standards-First Draft
                         (October 2007-October 2008) (projected)
The second phase of the project will be the development of concrete, interpretable standards from the Guiding Principles. The Standards Committee will oversee the writing of the new standards and present a first draft to the public affairs educators, employers of graduates from accredited programs, and the general public for feedback.

PHASE THREE: Development of NASPAA Standards-Voting Draft
                            (October 2008-October 2009) (projected)
The third year of the project will be devoted to the incorporation of the feedback into a final set of standards to be presented for a vote at the Fall 2009 NASPAA Conference.

IMPLEMENTATION:
First Option for Programs to Review under New Standards: 2010-2011 (projected)
Required Review under New Standards: 2011-2012 (projected)