Performance-base funding coming to Illinois

[annasdad]

<p>This year, the Illinois General Assembly passed and the governor signed a law intended to make public universities in Illinois more accountable.</p>

<p>Here is the synopsis of the bill (in part) from the General Assembly’s website:</p>

<p>

Directs the Board of Higher Education to form a broad-based group of individuals representing the Office of the Governor, the General Assembly, public institutions of higher education, State agencies, business and industry, Statewide organizations representing faculty and staff, and others as the Board shall deem appropriate to devise a system for allocating State resources to public institutions of higher education based upon performance in achieving State goals related to student success and certificate and degree completion. Provides that, beginning in Fiscal Year 2013, the Board of Higher Education budget recommendations to the Governor and the General Assembly shall include allocations to public institutions of higher education based upon performance metrics designed to promote and measure student success in degree and certificate completion.

</p>

<p>Yesterday I received a press release from my local rep in the General Assembly bearing on this (emphasis added):</p>

<p>

College Performance Funding Measures Near
In response to HB1503 that became law this summer, a Performance Funding Steering Committee, on which I serve, has been meeting to establish performance models for funding higher education in Illinois. The group will develop their recommendations for the Illinois Board of Higher Education later this month. </p>

<p>The state is clearly on a path to increase the percentage of its citizens with education certificates or degrees beyond high school by 50 percent in the next decade. Many believe a better trained Illinois workforce will help businesses compete in a global economy and thus be able to provide better jobs.</p>

<p>All colleges and universities must find ways to help more current students graduate. Some institutions are already doing this and they welcome the opportunity for funding based upon their achievements. Faculty must be engaged in the process too and focused on student results rather than just lecturing. </p>

<p>The performance measures will vary depending on whether the institution is a community college, four-year university or research university. They will be developed by each institution and measure improvement over time rather than reaching a set number. </p>

<p>The new performance standards will be implemented with or without additional funding. Other states using this process have taken a small percent of current funding and awarded it to those who achieve their performance improvement.

</p>

[MomfromKC]

<p>Okay, so what is IL’s current level of adults with college degrees? If it is 30% then they are shooting for 45% within the next ten years. What if it is currently 50%? then they would want to push it to 75%. Are they including only a certain age group or all adults. When people start throwing around the word metrics they better know their math. To me % of citizen includes retirees. I don’t think they are going to get to they think they want to go, but of course I don’t think they know what they are talking about either. If the colleges get stricter/more selective in order to improve their 4 yr graduation rates then the overall number of grad in the state will go down. Then again somebody on another thread said Missouri and Iowa are full of IL students as seen by the number of out of state plates in the parking lot. As usual the policitians don’t know what they are doing. I do know someone who would have been happy to be awarded an AA like certificate when she decided not to complete her BS. I bet you see a lot of that.</p>

[annasdad]

<p>

what is IL’s current level of adults with college degrees?

</p>

<p>US Census data:</p>

<p>

Education (Persons 25 and older)
Rural * Urban * Total
Percent not completing high school
1980 38.7 32.5 33.5
1990 27.5 23.1 23.8
2000 20.0 18.3 18.6</p>

<p>Percent completing high school only
1980 40.0 34.3 35.1
1990 38.0 28.6 30.0
2000 37.3 26.2 27.7</p>

<p>Percent completing some college
1980 11.8 15.8 15.2
1990 22.8 25.6 25.2
2000 28.6 27.5 27.6</p>

<p>Percent completing college
1980 10.0 17.4 16.2
1990 11.7 22.7 21.0
2000 14.1 28.0 26.1

</p>

<p>

Okay, so what is IL’s current level of adults with college degrees? … When people start throwing around the word metrics they better know their math.

</p>

<p>The goal I quoted was “education certificates or degrees beyond high school,” which includes not only “college degrees” but also vocational certifications.</p>

[MomfromKC]

<p>So somewhere between 26.1 and 53.7% currently have degrees or certificates? Let’s say it is 40%. So they want to increase it to 60% of all adults when 18 % didn’t even graduated from high school by age 25. That is not going to happen. You can expect to see a ton of AA degrees being awarded to students who had signed up to get BA/BS and didn’t cut it. Everybody needs a piece of paper. Heck paper is cheap. Students with decent general core studies who had no focus, no plan, no career goal will get a pretty little cert and the college will get a gold star next to its ranking. Lots of HVAC techs (which is a good thing) and Ultrasound & MRI techs and certified bookkeppers. (all good things) But they aren’t going to increase the number of college graduates from 26 to 39 percent of all adults. People are living into their 90"s adn 100’s. They might have some limited luck if they look at the 25-40 year old population. All adults forget it!</p>