Dennis Day
Dennis is a Senior Consultant with Collegiate Project Services.
Latest posts by Dennis Day (see all)
- What does sport analytics have in common with student success? - February 23, 2016
- Politics, Education and Student Success Measures - December 7, 2015
- Holistic Student Success:A Lesson on Change from “The Office” - June 15, 2015
Through necessity, politics and education often converge. The greatest confluence of impact is on funding: it always gets down to the money. Public and private education is dependent on government funding sources whether it is local, state or federal funding. Since schools accept this funding, they must be accountable to the requirements from the entities that provide the resources. These requirements are often tied to student success measures.
Recently, we have seen a small relaxing of proposed accountability measures. Will this continue? To believe there will be less accountability as time goes on is a bit like going to the mirror and thinking I am getting younger. Neither is real, but we can convince ourselves for a short while that it is possible.
The Connection to Holistic Student Success
So what’s the connection to student success? For decades, higher education has held itself accountable in student success: collecting data to show graduation rates, persistence rates, return on revenue collected, and countless other measures. As Walter Bumphus, President and CEO of AACC said, “looking at graduation rates is a very narrow view.”
As higher education professionals, we need to look across our total landscape and determine what measures of student success are important to both our funding sources and our students. We cannot sit still and think that the status quo is good enough. Whether your politics are right- or left-sided, whether Democrat, Republican or other, the days of higher education as sacred are gone. The agenda for most political candidates includes higher education and they are asking for student success results that warrant the public investment in our institutions of higher learning. Defining those results are far more than graduation rates, even though this is what is most quoted as a measure of success. Success is what we strive for our students, but student success is being defined in the political arena for education.
Student Success Accountability
In a report from the National Commission on Accountability in Higher Education (funded by the Ford Foundation), they cited global completion, rates of completion, access to higher education, and success gaps as major drivers. The report emphasized that investment in teaching and data systems (not just data) was needed. It also called for the removal of detailed controls by legislative bodies in favor of goals that are based on market needs and priorities.
This “fresh approach” would be what Joe LeCluyse would point to in his writings on the “new normal” in higher education. Even though recently the White House’s higher education initiatives has led to some “relaxing” of the ratings system, the call for student success measures is not going away.
Institutions Need to Proactively Define Student Success Measures
It is these, more comprehensive student success measures that we strive for in the “new normal” of today’s higher education landscape. But unless the leaders in higher education take a more proactive approach to defining student success measures, these measures will be defined in the political arena for us. Whether we have a Democrat, Republican or Independent in the White House and controlling Congress; State and National legislators and the President will all have higher education on their agenda.
It would be a rare occurrence to see any true roll back of accountability measures; logic and history tell us government interest in higher education will only increase. If funding continues to come from taxes, then there will be strings attached. And those strings will continue to be pulled: politicians are compelled to ask higher education to justify why the millions of dollars should continue to be allocated or granted.
All these questions are on the radar of all political groups because of the billions of dollars involved; it will not go away!
The Future of Student Success
As higher education professionals, it is our responsibility to steer our institutions to meet these student success targets or we face reduced or limited funding from local, state, and federal entities. While there is time to plan and develop methods of moving the needles of accountability, we must be focused and diligent to be ready for the next phase of “political” decision making. It is why Collegiate Project Services has dedicated itself to helping colleges and universities to define student success, to determine measurements to demonstrate student success and methods for each institution to ingrain these into their culture.
Politics and education can work together, as long as their agendas have some common ground. Anticipating what the funding sources will need to satisfy funding priorities can be a collaborative process when Higher Education leadership works with those funding bodies. Colleges and universities can better prepare for the coming years by having a plan to define student success and using their available resources- their talents and student bodies- in a holistic way.
We, as leaders in higher education, must be proactive and set the agenda rather than react to outside agencies. Waiting for the next legislative session or election cycle is like walking in sand; we need to get to higher ground to chart a new path for success.
Higher education needs to plan how we can change our culture and assist our students as they reach their goals and meet the comprehensive definition of student success that our schools have developed. A definition that is reflective of our communities, meets the market place demands, and allows each student to achieve success.
