CURRENT AND RECENT PROJECTS

Accountability

In November, 2002, we completed a major report for the California State Senate that recommends a framework for statewide accountability for higher education in California. The report, entitled An Accountability Framework for California Higher Education: Informing Public Policy and Improving Outcomes became the basis for an advisory group, which we led, to develop specific principles, procedures, and performance indicators in support of statewide accountability aimed at meeting vital state public policy goals.  The  advisory group's final report was issued in November, 2003.  Legislation to implement the new framework has been introduced. 

Based on this work, we have become involved in national discussions of accountability, including consulting work in Connecticut, Ohio, and Colorado, and for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education.  We are assisting the State Higher Education Executive Officer's (SHEEO) National Commission on Accountability.  We provided testimony for its initial meeting and continue to serve on the panel of experts for the initiative.  And we have presented a paper at the Public Policy Forum of the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

We are currently serving on the advisory group that is assisting the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) in its efforts to develop a proposal for statewide accountability for higher education in California.

In 2005, we produced a report on how states can address issues concerning the public's trust in higher education as they develop state accountability plans.  The report was produced as part of a larger project sponsored by the US Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. The project aims to define best practices for states in developing accountability models for higher education.

Performance Measurement

With funding from the Campaign for College Opportunity, we produced a report analyzing California's performance on Measuring Up, the 50-state report card produced by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The report discusses the state's score in each of the five categories of performance, and presents a breakdown of related data by region and by race/ethnicity. We point out several key performance problems facing the state, and discuss the implications for policy. We intend to produce similar reports bi-annually, based on the National Center's release of Measuring Up.

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