It’s important that standardized performance measurements are used to ensure that data is compiled consistently across multiple entities. Without standardization, it would be impossible to compare the results gathered in one organization to another.

That said, a presentation by Dr. Marva Mack on June 6 in Rockville, Maryland, at the National Academy of Public Administration’s annual Social Equity Leadership Conference emphasized the critical importance of knowing the components of what is being measured and what is not. While her focus was on higher education, the same idea could apply to governments or other sectors in which standardized measurements are used.

As an example, she showed how the standardized graduation rates of individual community and four-year colleges can deliver only a partial picture. 

Why? Traditionally, standardized college graduation rates have only included first time, full-time degree-seeking students who enter in the fall and graduate in 150% of the time allotted – three years for community college and six years for a four-year college or university program. 

But to fully understand what’s happening in an individual institution “You have to expand your reporting, and expand your story, to really report on the parts of the population that are left out of the standardized measurement,” she said.

Her example of what’s left out came from an unidentified community college in which graduation rates were based on slightly more than 1,100 students out of nearly 10,500 student total. In other words, the graduation rate was based only on about 11 percent of the total. That’s because many students enter community college programs after starting programs elsewhere or they may enter in the spring or have a pre-set timeline for graduation or are not aiming toward a degree.

That additional information is helpful to colleges that need to portray a fuller picture of their own mission, to researchers who are studying higher education impact and to citizens who may be losing faith in the worth of a college education. To illustrate this problem, she cited one study from 2023 that showed that 56% of respondents had lost faith in the power of a bachelor’s degree. “But actually, colleges that look bad are actually doing well,” she said.

As Mack told the audience, “sometimes, the standard used does not really communicate the success of the institution because it doesn’t count all the mission-driven things that the institution is doing.

“I’m not saying that having the standard is bad. I’m saying we need to know what it is and what it is not. We need to know what parts of the story are missing.” 

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