UW Has Already Reformed Undergraduate Education

"This is not unique to Washington, it is becoming more common in the country," says Zumeta. Tennessee uses a system that gives bonuses to schools reaching certain retention levels, graduation rates, test scores and other statistics. Missouri rewards institutions for graduating certain types of students, such as "financially at-risk" students or those from underrepresented ethnic groups. Colorado, Florida and Texas are experimenting with accountability systems.

As their best, accountability statistics can pinpoint weaknesses in an institution and direct money and personnel towards fixing them. "If we do it right, it is a representation of how well we are doing," says UW Undergraduate Education Associate Dean Debra Friedman.

"At its worst, it could mean inefficient micromanagement by a state," adds Zumeta.

The call for accountability is nothing new. As soon as President Richard L. McCormick arrived in 1995, he pledged "a new, increased level of accountability" at the UW. Four months before the 1997 Legislature convened, McCormick asked Provost Lee Huntsman, the UW's chief academic and budget officer, to appoint an accountability task force.


Provost Lee Huntsman

At its basic level, Huntsman says, accountability means answering to the public for what we do. "We don't want our universities to be factories," he says. "On the other hand, we don't want them to be wasteful places either."

While the UW's mission includes teaching, research and public service, most accountability measures focus on undergraduate education. Many lawmakers and citizens are concerned about the rising costs for higher education at the same time that access seems to be shrinking. "They want us to squeeze down some of the `fat' and teach more students," says Burkey.

But the reality is that most of the "fat" doesn't exist. Over the last 10 years, the UW has reformed undergraduate education and it continues to refine the system. The improvements include:

* Increased graduation rates. About 57 percent of all freshmen entering in 1986-87 graduated within six years. For freshmen entering in 1990-91, the six year rate rose to 70 percent.

* Opened up more space in "bottleneck" courses. For example, Biology 201 is required for 11 different programs. In Autumn Quarter 1994 more than 200 students were denied entry due to limited class size. After a sizable investment in faculty, TAs and classrooms, only 50 students did not get in two years later.

* Lowered the average freshman/sophomore class size. In 1986 the average class size for this group was 44 students. In 1996 it was 40 students, and more than two-thirds of all lower-division classes had fewer than 35 students.

* Strengthened retention rates. The UW reported that 90 percent of all freshmen starting in 1995 continued their studies in 1996. Associate Dean Friedman notes that this is the highest freshman retention rate for any public research university in an urban setting.

* Created new types of learning communities. This fall, more than 1,800 freshmen enrolled in Freshman Interest Groups, groups of new students who take classes together and meet each week with faculty and a student mentor. UWIRED is a technology initiative that blends e-mail, web sites and on-line discussion groups into traditional teaching. Freshman Seminars offer new students the chance to learn from senior faculty--such as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Hans Dehmelt.

* Changed academic requirements. For example, the faculty revised graduation requirements, increasing the number of choices students have to fulfill credits in the sciences, math or logic, humanities and the arts. Last year the UW also changed its drop policy. In the past students could drop anytime during the first seven weeks of a class--beginning Winter Quarter they must drop during the first two weeks.

* Involved undergraduates in faculty research. Surveys of recent graduates report that 20 percent have had a research experience with faculty during their course of study. The UW plans to push that number to 25 percent by 2005.

A New Twist: Linking Accountability to Funding
Some Goals Could Backfire
By the Numbers: Chart of UW Accountability Goals

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