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Report 96-2: Performance Indicators of California Higher Education, 1995: The Second Annual Report to California's Governor, Legislature, and Citizens in Response to Assembly Bill 1808 (Chapter 741, Statutes of 1991)

Published by The California Postsecondary Education Commission

February 1996

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This is the Commission's second annual report on the performance of California higher education. The performance indicators reported here contain the information most currently available. Several new indicators have been developed for 1995. Most notable are those that focus on student financial aid, student participation, and degree production at California's independent colleges and universities. Also new is a focus on changes in postsecondary participation and performance by gender, and of students from different racial/ethnic groups on standardized admissions examinations (Scholastic Assessment Test -- SAT -- and American College Test -- ACT).

The performance indicators are organized into five major sections:

  • Demographic characteristics of California's population;
  • Fiscal support of public postsecondary education and student financial aid as well as an indicator of instructional expenditures in the public systems;
  • Student preparation indicators that include the size and composition of the State's public high school graduates and their academic preparation for education beyond high school;
  • Student access indicators that show participation in California postsecondary education at the first-time freshman level, the community college transfer student level, and the graduate student level; and
  • Indicators of student experiences that report persistence and the numbers of degrees awarded. This section also contains information on the faculty composition in the State's public systems of education.

These indicators provide useful historical trend data on the context and performance of California higher education for educational policy makers and the general public. The Commission proposes to continue to update this set of indicators in the future but plans to make greater use of technology in the process of identifying and integrating the most current information, and plans to publish these data on the Internet.

Once this shift in technology has been completed, Commission staff plans to focus its attentions on facilitating and implementing the recommendation related to improving information about student outcomes in the Commission's major planning document, The Challenge of the Century:

  • California's colleges and universities should increasingly develop and publicize clear statements of their unique missions, goals, and expectations, including specific expectations of the skills and competencies their graduates should be able to demonstrate and the means for measuring and reporting these achievements. They should also gather and report information on the postgraduate activities and careers of their alumni in order to help guide curricular change and student choice.

The Commission adopted this report on February 5, 1996.

Related Topics: Enrollment Demand and Capacity Analysis | Performance of Higher Education | State and Federal Legislation
 

Further information may be obtained from the Commission's Research Staff
(916) 445-1000 or via e-mail at Research_Staff@cpec.ca.gov.

A copy of any publication may be requested from the Commission's Publications Unit
(916) 445-1000 or via e-mail at Publication_Request@cpec.ca.gov.

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