Core Component 2c

The organization’s ongoing evaluation and assessment processes provide reliable evidence of institutional effectiveness that clearly informs strategies for continuous improvement.

Assessment is such an important element to the achievement of goals in program areas related to teaching and learning and research that full discussions are included in those chapters. However, assessment and evaluation also are crucial to planning strategies for continuous improvement. The university recognizes its responsibility to assess its own planning initiatives, the need to commit necessary resources for effective assessment, ensuring quality data collection to measure whether plans are met, and evaluating the ability of the individual units’ implementation of change initiatives.

Oversight for Assessment and Planning
Oversight for assessment responsibilities that focus on program effectiveness is distributed across various units of the institution responsible for the quality control of programs, with oversight for central planning and other institutional assessment efforts in the hands of groups that are representative of campus constituencies. The Office of Institutional Research and Analysis (IR) serves as the official source of institutional information. It is the mission of this office to define, collect, analyze, maintain, and disseminate official institutional data.¹¹⁷ IR provides official information to both internal and external constituents for the purposes of describing, documenting, and publishing measures of effectiveness. In addition, the office coordinates the preparation of data and reports for submittal to Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the CCHE.¹¹⁸

IR collects and maintains official data for reporting and analysis. The following list identifies the most common data factors and reports and their identified use:

• Format 100 (Headcount and FTE) by semester and year—submitted to CCHE, also used to support budget decisions by the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, the Board of Governors, and the CSU-Pueblo administration
  
  
• University Fact Book (academic and performance profiles) by year—university Web site, program planning and review
  
  
• Enrollment by ethnicity by semester—diversity, enrollment management
  
  
• Credit hour and tuition tables by semester—revenue projections
  
  
• Graduation rates by year—performance indicator
  
  
• Retention rates by semester and year—performance indicator, feedback on first-year experience
  
  
• Remedial headcount by semester—collaborate with local school districts in college preparation
  
  
• District 60 and 70 graduates—program planning within the colleges, orientation, academic advising, enrollment management, recruitment, retention, student preparation, demographic composition
  
  
• District 60 and 70 enrollment—program planning within the colleges, orientation, academic advising, enrollment management, recruitment, retention, student preparation, demographic composition
  
  
• Low-demand academic programs and degrees awarded by year—program planning

The president and the Board of Governors have ultimate responsibility for assessment and planning and are held accountable by the state through formal review processes, including the CSU System Performance Contract, which defines specific outcomes that must occur over the next one to five years for the university to be in compliance with terms for funding. Regular assessment reports are due to the CSU System, Board of Governors, and CCHE to document achievement of outcomes.

¹¹⁷See http://www.colostate-pueblo.edu/ir/.  
¹¹⁸See http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ and http://www.state.co.us/cche/.