Measures focus on college completion rates, affordability, and graduate outcomes
A revised performance funding model for public colleges and universities was approved Thursday by Missouri’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education.
The revised model establishes six measures that are used to evaluate the performance of the state’s community colleges, two-year technical college, and universities. Performance based on the model is used to determine a portion of state funding allocated to each higher education institution.
“The new performance funding model includes more rigorous measures designed to focus on state goals for student success and reward improvements in efficiency and effectiveness in the public higher education system,” said Zora Mulligan, Missouri commissioner of higher education.
The revised performance funding model is designed to answer the following questions:
- Are students completing certificates and degrees?
- Are students mastering what they study?
- Are graduates getting jobs or continuing their education?
- Are college costs affordable?
- Are Missouri’s colleges and universities spending funds judiciously?
The model contains specific measures for the state’s two-year colleges, state technical college, and four-year universities that focus on student success and progress, efficiency and affordability, and graduate outcomes.
Several of the measures are weighted to reflect Missouri’s growing need for graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and health care fields and to reduce the achievement gap for students who are underrepresented in higher education, including low-income, minority, and first-generation college students.
The Department of Higher Education worked with a task force of higher education leaders from across the state to revise the performance funding model.
Missouri was one of the first states in the nation to adopt performance funding as a way to evaluate public colleges and universities. The model has been used to award a portion of state higher education funding since 2014.