March 29, 2004
Academic accounting | Richard Pattenaude, president of the University of Southern Maine, joins a national panel designed to measure the effectiveness of higher education
By Sean Donahue
As traditional jobs disappear from the economic landscape, business leaders and policy makers across the country are increasingly looking at higher education as a key to maintaining prosperity in a changing economy. But as Maine and other states call on their colleges and universities to supply a vital commodity ˆ a highly educated workforce ˆ how can they make sure those institutions are performing the task as well as they could be?
Richard Pattenaude, president of the University of Southern Maine, hopes to help develop a national system to answer that question and improve colleges' and universities' performance. In February, the Association of State Higher Education Executive Officers named Pattenaude to the National Commission on Accountability in Higher Education, a new body made up of educators, former governors and legislators and business representatives from across the country that will study the use of so-called accountability systems within higher education institutions.
Accountability, in this case, essentially means making the process and results of education more measurable by bringing business-like practices such as goal setting and performance tracking to universities and colleges. When the commission delivers its final report, expected by the end of the year, Pattenaude hopes to have produced something akin to the Maine Economic Growth Council's "Measures of Growth" report, but designed specifically to help educational institutions establish and track their own vital benchmarks. "With accountability systems, you can say 'now we have goals and strategies and we can hold people to results,'" says Pattenaude.
SHEEO's decision to create a national commission on the subject this year, says Pattenaude, is partially an effort to preempt what educators see as potentially "harsh" accountability mandates coming from the federal government. A recent example is a bill introduced by California Congressman Howard "Buck" McKeon that would have required federally funded universities to keep annual tuition increases in line with the national inflation rate, or else lose a portion of their federal aid. (McKeon subsequently removed that provision from his bill after discussions with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.)
But even while calling for more business-like measuring and benchmarking, Pattenaude knows that university administrators can't simply try to run colleges and universities the way managers run businesses. Instead, Pattenaude expects the commission to develop benchmarks and measurements tuned to reveal the operating effectiveness of educational institutions, such as measuring student retention and graduation rates. Tracking ˆ and, he hopes, increasing ˆ the number of students who attain degrees helps indicate the relevance and quality of the classes being offered and the effectiveness of the school's advising program, says Pattenaude. "Measuring good advising is pretty hard, but measuring the results of good advising is pretty easy," he says.
But the intangibility that characterizes much of the education process, says Pattenaude, has created tension around the burgeoning discussion of accountability within the higher education sector, where many educators believe there is no way to quantify what they do. That's why, along with proactively addressing the concerns of policy makers and the taxpayers who help fund state colleges and universities, Pattenaude hopes the commission's work will address and maybe even defuse some of the education sector's concerns over measuring its performance. "I think the result [of the commission's work] will be a report and a guidebook which might have as an alternative title 'Making Accountability Safe for Higher Education,'" says Pattenaude. "How do you take accountability systems and fit and adapt them [to education] to make sense?"
Richard Pattenaude, president of the University of Southern Maine, hopes to help develop a national system to answer that question and improve colleges' and universities' performance. In February, the Association of State Higher Education Executive Officers named Pattenaude to the National Commission on Accountability in Higher Education, a new body made up of educators, former governors and legislators and business representatives from across the country that will study the use of so-called accountability systems within higher education institutions.
Accountability, in this case, essentially means making the process and results of education more measurable by bringing business-like practices such as goal setting and performance tracking to universities and colleges. When the commission delivers its final report, expected by the end of the year, Pattenaude hopes to have produced something akin to the Maine Economic Growth Council's "Measures of Growth" report, but designed specifically to help educational institutions establish and track their own vital benchmarks. "With accountability systems, you can say 'now we have goals and strategies and we can hold people to results,'" says Pattenaude.
SHEEO's decision to create a national commission on the subject this year, says Pattenaude, is partially an effort to preempt what educators see as potentially "harsh" accountability mandates coming from the federal government. A recent example is a bill introduced by California Congressman Howard "Buck" McKeon that would have required federally funded universities to keep annual tuition increases in line with the national inflation rate, or else lose a portion of their federal aid. (McKeon subsequently removed that provision from his bill after discussions with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.)
But even while calling for more business-like measuring and benchmarking, Pattenaude knows that university administrators can't simply try to run colleges and universities the way managers run businesses. Instead, Pattenaude expects the commission to develop benchmarks and measurements tuned to reveal the operating effectiveness of educational institutions, such as measuring student retention and graduation rates. Tracking ˆ and, he hopes, increasing ˆ the number of students who attain degrees helps indicate the relevance and quality of the classes being offered and the effectiveness of the school's advising program, says Pattenaude. "Measuring good advising is pretty hard, but measuring the results of good advising is pretty easy," he says.
But the intangibility that characterizes much of the education process, says Pattenaude, has created tension around the burgeoning discussion of accountability within the higher education sector, where many educators believe there is no way to quantify what they do. That's why, along with proactively addressing the concerns of policy makers and the taxpayers who help fund state colleges and universities, Pattenaude hopes the commission's work will address and maybe even defuse some of the education sector's concerns over measuring its performance. "I think the result [of the commission's work] will be a report and a guidebook which might have as an alternative title 'Making Accountability Safe for Higher Education,'" says Pattenaude. "How do you take accountability systems and fit and adapt them [to education] to make sense?"
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