Tag Archives: accountability

Legislative Committee Approves Higher Education Report

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This morning the Washington Joint Legislative Audit & Review Committee (JLARC) adopted the final report, Transparency in Higher Education Data.

In 2009, the Legislature asked JLARC to explore the feasibility of linking expenditure, revenue, and performance information for the state’s public four-year institutions.

The report found that in general comparable revenue, expenditure and performance information is currently available for each of the six public four-year institutions.

The report identifies some gaps and offers suggestions for improvements to fiscal data collected in the state accounting system and performance data collected by the Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Mike Reilly, Executive Director for the Council of Presidents, testified to the value of considering the adoption and implementation of  the NGA initiative Compete to Complete. Compete to Complete  offers the state the opportunity to consolidate measures for higher education into a single framework.  The University of Washington also testified.

The final report was unanimously approved.

Governor’s Association Names Advisory Group for Accountability Initiative

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The National Governor’s Association (NGA) recently announced the members of the Complete to Compete National Advisory Group.

Complete to Compete is a yearlong initiative, developed by the current NGA Chair Governor Manchin (WV), focused on increasing the number of students in the U.S. who complete college degrees and certificates and improving the productivity of the country’s higher education institutions.

The members of the Advisory Group include:

Charlie Earl- Executive Director, Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges
Fred DuVal – Vice Chair, Arizona Board of Regents
Roger Ferguson, Jr. – President/CEO, TIAA-CREF
Juliet Garcia, President, Universit of Texas at Brownsville & Texas Southmost College
Bill Green, Chairman/CEO, Accenture
Brian Noland, Chancellor, West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission
Charlie Reed, Chancellor, The California State University
Eduardo Padron, President, Miami Dade College
Eric Smith, Commissioner, Florida Department of Education
Nancy Zimpher, Chancellor, State University of New York

Comments Requested on Financial Literacy Competencies

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The Financial Literacy and Education Commission is requesting comments on a proposed set of financial education core competencies.

As a part of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, the Commission is required to review the national strategy to promote basic financial literacy and education. As a part of this review the Commission determined that there is a need to develop core competencies for consumers and financial education providers.

The development of core competencies is a fundamental step in establishing a clear understanding about what individuals should know and the basic concepts program providers should cover. In addition the competencies should establish a baseline of knowledge.

The intention of the competencies is to define what consumers should know and be able to do to successfully understand and make informed decisions about their personal finances. To this end, the Commission has identified five core concept areas: (1) earning, (2) spending, (3) saving, (4) borrowing, and (5) protecting against risk as well as specific core competencies for each area.

The deadline for comments regarding whether the list of Core Competencies is complete and whether there are portions that should be deleted, revised, or expanded is September 12.  The request for comments is one of several steps in the validation phase of the development of the competencies.

NGA Announces Plans to Create Common Measures for College Completion

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This week, the new chairman of the National Governor’s Association (NGA), Joe Manchin III, Governor of West Virginia, announced a plan to create a common set of measures to monitor progress and compare states.

The report, Complete to Compete: Common College Completion Metrics recommends the common higher education measures that all states should collect and report publicly.

According to the NGA website:

Comparable, reliable metrics are essential for states under current fiscal constraints. Information on the progress toward, and degree completion of, all students in higher education allows state leaders to gauge whether policies are successful and helps inform future funding decisions. NGA convened a Work Group on Common College Completion Metrics to make recommendations on the common higher education measures that states should collect and report publicly.

The Work Group on Common College Completion Metrics, convened by the NGA, recommends four outcome metrics and six progressive metrics.

Outcome Metrics

  • Degrees and certificates awarded
  • Graduation rates
  • Transfer rates
  • Time and credits to degree

Progressive Metrics

  • Enrollment in remedial education
  • Success beyond remedial education
  • Success in first-year college courses
  • Credit accumulation
  • Retention rates
  • Course completion

Governor Manchin stated “we’re facing a generation of students that is projected to have lower educational attainment than their parents…an alarming stat”.

Manchin’s comment is well supported. The U.S. ranks 10th in the percentage of young adults with college degrees according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. In addition, both the Obama Administration and other higher education focused organizations, such as the Lumina Foundation for Education, have both set laudable goals for increasing the portion of Americans with college degrees.

Washington Receives Federal Funds to Support a Statewide Longitudinal Data System

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Last week, the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Science announced the awarding of $250 million in grants to twenty state education departments to design and implement a statewide longitudinal data system.

Among the twenty state education departments awarded funds, Washington received $17.3 million to assist in the development and implementation of systems that promote linking of data across time and databases, from early childhood into career, including matching teachers to students, while protecting student privacy and confidentiality consistent with applicable privacy protection laws.

The grant funds will be directed by Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Education Research and Data Center.

The grants are funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA, a.k.a. stimulus dollars) of 2009.  The awardees were selected in a competition based on the merit of the applicants’ proposals and the funding available for the program. All fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands applied.

Accountability for Higher Education Remains at Forefront for Obama Administration

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Reports from the Higher Learning Commission’s annual meeting emerged this week that indicated the Administration’s intent to continue the pressure initiated during the Bush Administration on colleges and universities to prove they provide a quality education at an accessible price.

The message from national higher education leaders who spoke at the meeting clearly communicated the Administration’s determination to hold colleges and universities accountable for performance or face undesirable consequences if institutions do not make meaningful changes on their own.

As Molly Corbett Broad, the president of the American Council on Education stated, “To the extent that federal policy makers are now willing to bail out banks and other financial institutions, and to take major equity positions in our auto makers, because those companies are too big to fail, then I believe it’s wise for us to assume they will have little reservation about regulating higher education now that they know it is too important to fail.”

So why all of this tough love? The Administration believes the vehicle by which to successfully educate more students to drive the economy is a college education.  However, for this success to materialize the Administration believes their is room for improvement with regards to performance.

Actions that underlie this intention are not hard to find.  In a brief scan of the higher education-related areas in which the Obama Administration has already delved, it is easy to recognize areas that historically would have been viewed as off-limits to federal action.

These include but are not limited to:

Still many college leaders are left scratching their heads with regard to specifics about how to bring about innovation that might persuade critics that believe higher education can be more productive without lowering quality.

The fact is that higher education institutions may not have much time to ponder. As Broad stated at the meeting, “If we fail to act, it is likely that change will be imposed upon us, with potentially serious consequences for the governance structure that has allowed the United States to develop the best, most inclusive ‘higher education system in the world.”

Senate Policy Committees Continue to Take Action on Bills

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Today Senate Policy Committees were busy moving bills forward before the cut-off deadline on Friday.

Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development

The Senate Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee passed a tuition policy bill for the University of Washington, Washington State University, and Western Washington Univerrsity.

Substitute Senate Bill 6562 allows the board’s of UW, WSU, and WWU to set tuition rates within limits. Tuition (the average annual compounded rate of change of undergraduate tuition fees)at these institutions is not allowed to exceed 9% based on the previous 15 years or 14% in any one year. In addition, the Committee on Higher Education Performance is created and authorized to approve performance agreements for UW, WSU, and WWU. Finally, these institutions must waive full-time tuition/fees for resident undergraduate students based on family and state median family income levels. The waivers are based on a graduated scale based on state median family income and institutional tuition fee rates.

For Evergreen as well as Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, and the community and technical colleges tuition fee setting authority remains the same as current law.

The substitute bill was further amended in committee. The amendments establish a sunset for tuition setting authority for the three institutions in the bill at the end of the 2017-18 academic year; change the title from Relating to higher education finance to Relating to higher education accountability and access; and modifies the Committee on Higher Education Performance to include members from the minority party.

Substitute Senate Bill 6562 passed unanimously out of committee. The bill is now headed to Senate Ways & Means for their consideration.

Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education

The Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education committee took action on an omnibus teacher preparation and K-12 bill. Substitute Senate Bill 6696 includes the following changes related to teacher preparation.

Section 402: Clarifies that community colleges and non-higher education providers can be considered for new providers of the alternative routes. Moves the option for residency teacher preparation programs to provide a summary of procedures providing flexible completion opportunities to section 403 and makes it part of what alternative route providers must include in their application.

Section 403: Removes “higher education” since such institutions will not be the only providers of alternative routes.

Section 409: Clarifies that the service regions for institutions of higher education is for those institutios of higher education as defined in RCW 28B.10.016 (all the 4-year universities and college & the community and technical colleges).

In addition, Substitute Senate Bill 6696 was amended as follows related to teacher preparation: (1) Amends the four-level evaluation system for teachers to use student growth data if available and relevant to the teacher and subject matter. Requires the school districts participating in the pilot of the teacher and principal evaluations to submit all student data to OSP; (2) Amends section 202 by adding a parent representative to the group that will create models for implementing the new teacher and principal evaluation system, student growth tools, professional development programs, and evaluator training for classroom teachers and principals. The parent representative must have certain specified qualities and will be chosen by the PTA using a lottery system; (3) Moves the phrase addressing professional development so that it applies to both closing the achievement gap and STEM; and (4) Amends the evaluation criteria for classroom teachers in section 202 to include collaborating, not just communicating with parents and school community.

Greater Government Accountability

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This morning the Senate Operations & Elections Committee held a public hearing on Senate Bill 6362.

Senate Bill 6362 relates to government accountability. In an effort to learn more, I attended the hearing.  Evergreen did not weigh in on the bill.

Senate Bill 6362 builds on an evolving effort to improve state government accountability and transparency. In the mid-nineties the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC) was created to make state government operations  more effective, efficient, and accountable. JLARC employs the State Auditor and conducts performance audits, program evaluations, sunset reviews, and other analyses to meet its objectives.

In 2005, the Legislature passed legislation that created the Citizen Advisory Board to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability in state government. The Board works in sync with the State Auditor.

In the fall of 2005, Washingtonians passed Performance Audits of Government Act (PAGA) which increased the role of the State Auditor by allowing this office to conduct independent, comprehensive performance audits of state and local governments. 

Senate Bill 6362 would focus the State Auditor’s work on verifying the efficiency of the top ten government priorities identifiedy by the Legislature. As a result, in addition to audits of programs and activities by agency, SB 6362 would permit audits of identified priorities.

So what are these priorities? They are:

1.  Student achievement in K-12

2. Quality and respect for public workforce

3. Value of state college or university education

4. Health of state citizens

5. Security of the state’s vulnerable children and adults

6. The economic vitality of business and individuals

7. Statewide mobility of people, goods, information, and energy

8. Safety of people and property

9. Quality of the state’s natural resources

10. Cultural and recreational opportunities throughout the state.

Each year, under SB 6362, JLARC would select one of the ten priorities and determine the relative priority of all programs and actitivies within that category. Those priorities identified as the highest would be subject to a performance audit by the State Auditor to determine that the programs and activities are operating at maximum efficiency. Those priorites determined to be the lowest would have a less demanding assessment.

The tasks identified under SB 6362 would be funded through a 30% allotment of funds assessed against the Performance Audits of Government Account.

The only group to testify during the public hearing for SB 6362 came from Washington newspapers in support of the bill.