Some Goals Could Backfire

Faculty productivity goals could also backfire. To measure "quantity," the Higher Education Coordinating Board wants the UW to report student credit hours per full-time faculty.

Currently, each full-time faculty position carries on average 202.47 credit hours; the education board's ultimate goal is 212.6. The fastest way to reach this target would be to increase class size. "But is providing bigger classes the way we want to go?" asks Burkey.

UW officials feel this productivity statistic is flawed. "It measures input, not outcomes," explains Bacharach. "Teaching is a far more complex activity than this. It is a number that doesn't tell you anything."

Associate Dean Friedman agrees. "The most important thing to measure is student learning outcomes, such as the development of critical thinking skills," she notes. A team of UW researchers are working on an alternative that measures outcomes, Friedman says, and she hopes the Legislature will consider this alternative when it is ready.

For all these measures, the rate of change just may not be possible, warns Friedman. The Legislature wants all of its performance goals met by 2004-05. The education board has targets spelled out for each year along the way and tied dollars to them. "The changes we are making now aren't going to pay off for five years," she says. "We can't move the graduation efficiency index in one year."

"These are not measures that you can move on a short notice," Huntsman adds. Yet lawmakers and the education board want specific targets met by the end of the current academic year.

Can the UW meet these targets? The provost isn't sure. "We are going to do everything we can to improve these measures," declares Huntsman. "But we're not going to do things that penalize students."

"The state plan needs a lot of work in terms of fine-tuning, and I think that lawmakers recognize that," says Zumeta. A clause in the law asks institutions to report back with accountability revisions or new measures. "My perception is that this is not a micromanagement oriented state with respect to higher education. At least, it has not been so in the past," he says.

Huntsman worries that something is missing in the pursuit of the bottom line. "How do you see the future of higher education? What are you doing to ensure that the University of Washington remains a high quality institution? How are you going to invent tomorrow's 'product.' Nobody is asking us those questions," he says.

Internally, the UW is tackling those questions. From the regents' Strategic Planning Committee to Presidential task forces to the University Initiatives Fund, the University's brain power is trying to develop tomorrow's "product."

Bacharach's accountability task force, for example, offered a host of innovative measures that would track research rankings, public service activities by students and faculty, measure economic impacts and take longitudinal studies of recent graduates. President McCormick presented his vision in an address to the UW community in October, which included strengthening the arts, humanities and social sciences; becoming a true three-campus university; integrating more fully teaching and research; and strengthening the partnership with K-12 education.

"We can all improve," the provost says. "But I'm proud of what we've already done." Zumeta agrees with Huntsman's assessment. "In Olympia, the UW's performance in this area has been noticed and is thought to be improving," he says.

It is a balancing act, admits Huntsman, with expectations from lawmakers sometimes in conflict with those of faculty, students or parents. Over the long term, he says he is optimistic. "We are embracing accountability," he says. "We're working hard to do the right thing." * Tom Griffin is editor of Columns.

By the Numbers: Chart of UW Accountability Goals
Return to the Beginning of "Passing Grades"

Send a letter to the editor at columns@u.washington.edu.

Table of Contents