Sluggish degree completion rates plague the state’s higher education segments, leaders, and students, stunting educational and economic growth. However, some institutions are proactively taking steps to improve student outcomes through the use of data.
University of California, Riverside, for example, created the Graduation Rate Task Force to collect and examine admissions, enrollment, retention, and graduation rate data. The taskforce made a series of recommendations to better support student needs. To do so, they employed a multistep approach to make evidence-based decisions that guided their work to improve graduation rates and time to degree.
A culture of data-based decision-making across institutions and at the state level could elevate California as a national leader in supporting student success and timely completion.
From Practice to Policy: How Institutions Leverage Data to Improve Outcomes
Data-driven strategies help leaders identify gaps that stall degree completion and spark solutions to modernize California’s higher education system. While it is crucial for California to develop a statewide longitudinal data system to adequately expand its analytical capacity, institutions should also leverage the data they currently hold to improve outcomes.
Learn more about the various ways data can be used as a tool to enact systemic change and inform continuous improvement in California Competes’ new brief, From Practice to Policy: How Institutions Leverage Data to Improve Outcomes.
