HD68 - Institutional Performance Standards


Executive Summary:
This report also satisfies the reporting requirements of Item 165. I.3. Chapter 951, 2005)

Guidelines for Assessments of Institutional Performance

The attached materials display a recommended relationship between the goals of the Restructuring Act and measures (Institutional Performance Standards) that SCHEV will employ in reaching annual “certification” decisions on institutional responses to the goals. Such decisions will be based on mutually-determined performance targets created by SCHEV and individual institutions.

With all measures, SCHEV will assist institutions in developing base-level data against which their performance target will be measured. Further, SCHEV will use its data resources to evaluate the rigor embedded in institutional targets. SCHEV will also use these same resources to develop web-based reports that provide greater detail on each measure for which it is already collecting relevant data. Finally, SCHEV will serve as a resource to institutions that wish to capture historical data on measures in order to provide context or additional clarity to their responses.

SCHEV recognizes, and the institutions agree, that data fluctuate from year to year, even when continual progress toward a goal is being made. Working with the institutions, SCHEV will develop a minimum acceptable threshold of performance for each measure based on historical trends. This threshold would be created such that it would still allow an institution to show progress toward a target, even if performance lagged from one year to the next. The practical effect of this is that it allows an institution to pass a measure, even when its performance may be less that what was anticipated for a given year, as long as it is above the prescribed minimum acceptable threshold.

Along with this minimum acceptable threshold of performance, SCHEV will develop an absolute minimum standard of performance on each measure. Once again, this will be based on past performance. This provides a standard of performance that each institution has been historically able to maintain and should be able to continue to maintain.

Not all measures addressing the goals apply to all institutions. Mission language may dictate an institutional request for an exemption. Further, an institution may be currently performing at an exceptional performance level and this might dictate a similar request. In this latter example, the institution would be able to direct its resources and attention to other measures where heightened performance better serves the institution and the Commonwealth. In both examples, SCHEV would grant or deny an exemption request.

To be certified as meeting the performance standards in effect in the fiscal year, institutions will meet the following SCHEV criteria:

1. Successful demonstration of institutional performance at or above the “absolute minimum standard of performance” on all measures.

2. Successful demonstration of continuing progress toward established targets on 15 of 18 measurable targets for four-year non-research institutions, 17 of 20 for research institutions, and 14 of 17 for two-year colleges.

3. Successful demonstration of commitment to the overall goals by failing no more than two measures for any single goal.

SCHEV reserves the right to modify the certification process when severe external forces outside the control of the institutions occur. These might include dramatic decreases in state financial support, shifts in federal higher education policies, particularly with respect to student aid and research, and/or state/national disasters.