Review Assessment Report

The Culinary Arts Program is nationally accredited by the American Culinary Federation Foundation Accrediting Commission. This ensures that the program meets the standards and competencies set for faculty, curriculum and student services. Our practices are aligned with industry practices and our faculty maintain a high level of professionalism. Being nationally accredited by the ACFEFAC, is no small undertaking and assures that the CNM Culinary Arts program is meeting the standards and competencies set for faculty, curriculum, and student services. Accreditation creates public trust by ensuring established standards, accountability and credibility, a high level of professionalism, up-to-date and current practices nation-wide, and provides CNM with marketing tools for recruiting new students, as well as having the ACFEF accreditation acting as a third-party endorser for federal funding.

Student class retention and pass rate remain strong for the baking program with averages in the 90%. During the 2020-2021 Academic Year the Baking Program continued moving toward the end of the pandemic by continuing to offer in-person learning and increasing class size throughout the year. Baking curriculum was returned to original pre-pandemic classes. The data collected during this cycle shows students generally perform all measured assessments at a Mastery level. Students met or exceeded all desired outcomes, both for internal and external assessments. Students demonstrate a strong ability to prepare a variety of food products according to standard recipes as well as application of basic cooking methods using proper knife, tool, and equipment techniques. They also have demonstrated knowledge of the fundamentals of baking science by preparing a variety of products according to standard recipes using proper hand, tool, and equipment techniques, as well as hygiene and sanitation standards in a kitchen set

We continued to find a strong level of student success even through the pandemic. Now that the pandemic is easing the programs enrollment will continue to increase. There was marked improvement in the areas of Baking Fundamentals, Safety and Sanitation, Customer Service, and Human Resources in Hospitality Management year-over-year. We continue to face some challenges in online sections of Safety and Sanitation, but the overall success rate has shown improvement.

Continue to update and revise lab competencies/assessments to bring our program into compliance with ACFEF changes. At the beginning of 2020, our accrediting organization modified their assessment criteria of the Advanced portion of the Baking and Pastry curriculum with additional theory and business requirements. This has required some modifications to our curriculum in the baking labs. The ACFEF Baking competencies were revised and have been addressed in 2021/2022.

Changes are driven by the ACFEF accrediting agency.

We are looking for most students to return and complete their degrees as the state goes through a post-pandemic recovery period. With a limited number of students that were allowed in Lab Fall 2020-2021 we will see an increase in fill rate and graduates as classes continue opening.

Pandemic restrictions are being lifted and it is evident in enrollment rates.

Advanced Baking and Pastry has been revised to reflect the competencies of the ACFEF. All required advanced techniques are now being taught in both CULN 2232/2234.