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Effectiveness Management:

Learning-Centric Assessment and Student Success

To be effective, campus management requires the implementation of effective data-driven strategies from learning management to retention management. While many attributes are necessary to successfully manage the academic enterprise, among the most important attributes to succeed are, first the knowledge of key business processes that are essential in the operation of the college, second the ability to assess the quality of such processes, and finally ability to translate assessment results into data-driven decision to implement a process of incremental quality improvement.

The process of institutional research and assessment usually provides the necessary data to support federal, state and accreditation compliance reports. Nevertheless, models or schemes to simulate the processes and derive data-driven decisions are sometimes absent. As an exarcerbating factor, an increase of accountability during distressful retrenchment times, generate more demands for evidence and justifications from constituents to gauge institutions’ ability to guarantee effectiveness. While institutional research provides most of the needed core information, a process of continuous assessment must be present to measure performance and measure process quality. To achieve this, a model must be designed to guide the strategies and actions that lead to the attainment of levels and quality of outcomes that meet expectations. Under these assumptions, a simple model is conceived to design, assess, simulate and monitor institutional performance. The model has three elements: input, processes and throughput.

The Model: ( Input + Process ) --à Throughput

This simple relational model works under the following postulates:

1. QUALITY: The quality and attributes of the inputs; combined with the quality and attributes of the business processess, determine the quality of outcomes, or in others words, throughput is a functions of input and processes.

2. UNCONTROLLABLE FACTORS: Most of the inputs, e.g. those associated with the level of academic preparedness of a cohort and its probability of success, are not under the control of the college.

3. CONTROLLABLE FACTORS: Most processes are, to great extent, under the control of the institution. This assumption plus postulate #2 above, entail that cohorts entrance conditions (input) will be the determinant of the quality of outcomes, unless we induce change or improve the quality of the processes.

4. CHANGE AGENTS: This postulate lead us to the conclusion that processes, such as the ones listed in the above process box, lead us to the real change opportunities and final determinants of quality of the throughput.

5. CULTURE OF EVIDENCE: Without continuous assessment there is no measure of gradual progress under a continuous quality improvement plan. Without measures there is no evidence of progress toward the attainment of success.

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7. INDIVIDUALIZED PROGRESS MONITORING: The model includes as a special process, the indidualized monitoring of student progress beyond degree audits. Individualized attention to the student entails the coninuosly gauging of student engagement, knowledge that enable us to provide feedback and the necessary stimuli to the student with student success in mind.