Higher Education Research Institute

Complex Measures of Success @insidehighered The Voluntary Framework of Accountability, a project that aims to create national metrics gauging how well two-year institutions serve their students and fulfill their assorted missions, unveiled stage one of its proposed measures for pilot testing last week. Formally introduced two years ago, the VFA is managed by the American Association of Community Colleges and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation for Education. The project has attracted the attention of educators who have long been critical of the federal government's main method of judging community colleges: the three-year graduation rate of first-time, full-time students. Still, some educators have been leery of the project, given the wide range of community colleges' missions, demographics and funding formulas across the country. Measure for Measure Last week, the VFA announced 40 pilot institutions that will test its custom metrics. Why Collect? Potential Federal Impact Data Collection Overload