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Student Success Scorecard: A Researcher’s Perspective

Published
April 11th, 2013
Author
Colleen Moore, Research Program Specialist, Institute for Higher Education, Leadership and Policy at California State University, Sacramento

April 11, 2013 | Written by: Colleen Moore, Research Program Specialist, Institute for Higher Education, Leadership and Policy at California State University, Sacramento

Since the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy (IHELP) opened in 2001, a substantial share of our work has focused on student success in the California Community Colleges (CCC) – how to measure it and how policy can be changed to improve student outcomes. We have pointed out the shortcomings of the CCC’s efforts to measure student success in its annual Accountability Reporting for Community Colleges (ARCC) report. Too many of the measures were simple counts of activities (e.g., number of transfers) rather than rates of success. The primary success rate, the Student Progress and Attainment Rate (SPAR), excluded too many students. The data were not disaggregated for sub-populations of students, and the considerable length (800+ pages) of the ARCC report limited its value as a basis for policy discussion.

This week the CCC Chancellor’s Office released a new accountability tool, the Student Success Scorecard, that addresses many of these shortcomings:

There is not one “right” way to measure success for community colleges given their multiple missions and the complexity of their students’ lives. Improvements could likely still be made, including collecting better data on students’ goals so their progress can be tracked with respect to those goals. But the CCC deserves credit for putting forward the most transparent accountability system we have seen, and for providing their colleges with a tool to support their continued efforts to improve student success.

To see the scorecard click here.

About the Author:

Colleen Moore is a Research Specialist at the Institute for Higher Education, Leadership and Policy at California State University, Sacramento where she designs and conducts policy-relevant research on higher education issues related to the Institute’s agenda. She has nearly 20 years of experience conducting research for use by policy makers, most recently on topics related to community college student success, higher education enrollment, finance policy, and accountability.