CCME Conference 2014, Savannah, GA Roundtable: President’s Executive Order-Outcome Measures for Assessing Military/Veteran Student Success

The DoD, DoE, DVA all me to discuss and what measurements were needed due to the President’s Executive order. Several questions were decided upon:

  1. What does a veteran need to know when selecting a school?
  2. What does an institution need to know about veteran services?
  3. What does the OVA need to know about how schools differ?
  4. How do vets and service members perform in different educational program?
  5. Is there variability is outcomes across institutions for different types of students?
  6. How do affordability and outcomes vary across institutions?

From these questions, several focus areas of focus were developed to collect outcome measurables from the institutions:

  1. During school outcomes:
  2. Retention rates within institutions: Definition: The percentage of first-time degree or certificate seeking students/beneficiaries who complete their educational program or return to the same institution to continue their studies the following year. Cohort/population: Cohort consists of any first time students/beneficiaries enrolled in the institution in a given year. (For this purpose the AF would only be reported under course completion and at no other stage). Reporting Subpopulations: *4-yr institutions: full-time Bachelor’s seeking, part-time Bachelor’s degree seeking; *Less than 4-yr institutions: full-time degree or certificate seeking students, part-time degree or certificate seeking students. Departments reporting: ED=Yes (ear one to year two) VA=Yes (potentially multi-years) DoD=Yes (potentially multi-years)
  3. Persistence rates of students: Definition: The percentage of the cohort who completed a program or enrolled for credit at any institution in two consecutive years. Cohort/Population: Cohort consists of any first time students/beneficiaries enrolled in an institution in a given year. Reporting Subpopulations: *4-year institutions: full-time Bachelor’s degree seeking, part time Bachelor’s degree seeking; *Less than 4-yr institutions: full-time degree or certificate seeking students, part-time degree or certificate seeking students.Departments Reporting: ED= Yes (every 8 years, multiple years for a single nationally representative cohort) VA= Yes (annually, year to year, multiple years for a single cohort) DoD= Yes(annually, year to year, multiple years for a single cohort)
  4. Course Completion rates within institutions: Definition: the percent of courses attempted for credit that were successfully completed (received a passing grade) in a given year. Cohort/Population: population includes any student/beneficiary who enrolled in a course for credit in the current year. Reporting subpopulations: TBD Departments Reporting: Ed= Yes (every eight years at the national level) VA= No DoD= Yes. (All non-first year students to included AF students would have their class completion rate reported here, but potentially no where else).
  5. Transfer-out rate: Definition: The percentage of the full-time, first-time students/beneficiaries who transferred to another institution. Within 150% of normal time (e.g. 6 years for a 4 yr. institutions, 3 years for a 2 yr. institutions and below) NOTE: the average time for an active duty student to complete an associate is 6 years and not 2 years. It was noted that this should be the reporting norm instead of the “traditional” student model norm.Cohort/Population: Cohort consists of any first time students/beneficiaries enrolled in the institution in a given year.Reporting Subpopulations: TBD Departments Reporting: ED= Yes (when reported) VA= Yes DoD= Will develop an alternative measure that includes part=time student. This is the information DoD is asking from institutions, to be able to create accurate measuring tools.
  6. Graduation/Completion Outcomes:
  7. Graduation/Program completion: Definition: a. GR 150- the percentage of first time degree or certificate seeking students/beneficiaries who complete a degree or certificate within 150% of normal time. B. GR200- The percentage of first time students/beneficiaries who complete a degree or certificate within 200% of normal time. Cohort/Population: Cohort for GR 150 and GR 200 consists of first time degree or certificate seeking students/beneficiaries enrolled in an institution in a given year followed for 150 percent and 200 percent of the time for normal completion.Reporting Subpopulations: *4-year institutions: full-time Bachelor’s degree seeking, full-time Associate’s degree seeking, fulltime undergraduate certificate seeking students; *Less than 4-year institutions: full-time degree seeking, full-time undergraduate certificate seeking students. Departments Reporting: ED= Yes (annually) VA= Yes (annually, but subject to under-reporting associated with voluntary reporting) Dod= will develop an alternative measure that includes part-time students (This is the information DoD is asking from institutions, to be able to create accurate measuring tools.)
  8. Number of Degrees/Certificate Completions from institutions: Definition: The number of degree or certificates completed by all students/beneficiaries within a given year. NOTE: since only first time students will be reported in every category save the course completion category, this could have a negative impact on how the school is rated in the new school rating system. To combat this, the VA has proposed using only 20% of reported ODEID information in any given year. Cohort/Population: Population includes all students completing a degree or certificate in a given year (to include non-first-time students). Reporting Subpopulations: Level or type of degree/completion, from less than 2-year certificates through graduate degrees and postgraduate certificates by field. Departments Reporting: ED= Yes (annually) VA= Yes (as allowed with voluntary reporting) DoD= Yes (annually).
  9. Median Federal Student Loan Borrowing: Definition: The median amount of Federal student loans borrowed for student’s/beneficiaries undergraduate study at the institution. All Federal loans for undergraduate study, including Parent PLUS loans, are included for this population of borrowers. Cohort/Population: Population includes all students/beneficiaries who borrowed for students’/beneficiaries’ undergraduate study at the institution and who graduated or withdrew from the institution in the given year. Reporting Subpopulations: TBD Departments Reporting: ED= Yes VA= possibly, VA is exploring the possibility of utilizing ED’s NSLDS system DoD= possibly, DoD is exploring the possibility of utilizing ED’s NSLDS system
  10. Post Graduation:
  11. Loan Default or Repayment rates: Definition: Loan default rate, also known as Cohort Default Rate (CDR), is the percentage of an institution’s students/beneficiaries who took out Federal student loans and defaulted on their Federal student’s loans within 3 years of entering repayment. Cohort/Populations: Population includes all borrowers who entered repayment three years earlier. Reporting Subpopulations: TBD Departments Reporting: ED= Yes VA= possibly, VA is exploring the possibility of utilizing ED’s NSLDS system DoD= possibly, DoD is exploring the possibility of utilizing ED’s NSLDS system.
  12. Future Exploration:
  13. Average number of years to complete degree/certificate: Definition: The average time to complete is the average number of years that it takes a student/beneficiary to complete a degree or certificate. For students who graduate/complete in a given year, the total number of years students/beneficiaries were enrolled (or used the GA Bill/TA) to complete degree or certificate divided by the number of completers. Cohort/Populations: Population includes all students/beneficiaries who complete a degree or certificate within a certain year. Reporting subpopulations: TBA Departments Reporting: ED= Yes (every 8 years) VA= TBD DoD= TBD. This is part of the ongoing discussions the DoD is having with institutions.
  14. Average number of institutions attended prior to completing degree: Definition: the average number of institutions attended by a student/beneficiary prior to degree or certificate completion. For student who graduate/complete in a given year, the total number of institutions in which the students/beneficiaries were enrolled (or used the GI Bill/TA) divided by the number of graduates/completers. Cohort/Population: Population includes all students/beneficiaries who complete a degree or certificate within a given year.Reporting Subpopulations: TBD. This is part of the ongoing discussions the DoD is having with institutions.Departments Reporting: ED= Yes (every 8 years) VA= TBD DoD= TBD. This is part of the ongoing discussions the DoD is having with institutions.
  15. Employment rates in field of study: Definition: employment rate in the field of study is the percent of student who completed a specific number of years prior and are now working in an occupation related to their field of study (as defined by BLS). Cohort/Population: Population includes all students/beneficiaries who completed a specified number of years prior. Reporting Subpopulations: TBD. This is part of the ongoing discussions that DoD is having with institutions. Departments Reporting: ED= Yes (every 8 years for a nationally represented population) VA= TBD DoD= TBD. This is part of the ongoing discussions the DoD is having with institutions.
  16. Unemployment rates: Definition: The unemployment rate is the percent of students/beneficiaries who completed or withdrew from a specific institution a specified number of years prior, who are not currently enrolled in any postsecondary institution, and are looking for work, buy not employed. Cohort/Populations: All students who graduated or withdrew from the institution a specified number of years prior who are not currently enrolled, not employed, but looking for work.Reporting Subpopulations: TBD. This is part of the ongoing discussions that DoD is having with institutions. Departments ReportingED= Yes (every 8 years for a nationally represented population) VA= TBD. DoD= TBD. This is part of the ongoing discussions the DoD is having with institutions.
  17. Average salary for graduates: Definition: The salary is the average annual earnings for students/beneficiaries (not currently enrolled in school/or in active duty) two years after they complete their degree or certificate. Cohort/Population: All students/beneficiaries who completed two years prior. Reporting Subpopulations: TBD. This is part of the ongoing discussions the DoD is having with institutions. Departments Reporting: ED= Yes (every 8 years for a nationally represented population) VA= TBD DoD= TBD. This is part of the ongoing discussions the DoD is having with institutions.

Questions and or recommendations from the roundtable to the DoD.

  • Cost of attendance is important to understand as tuition varies from school to school and also by school type (2 yr., 4yr. private, 4 yr. state, 4 yr. non-profit). Also Part time vs. full time needs to be considered as the Army’s average student takes only 9 hours per year.
  • Better definition of employment. Use more than just salary as definition. Examples include job/field satisfaction, room for growth, flex time, work from home, benefits.
  • How can we stop the duplication reporting for TA, VA, FA students across all departments?
  • IPED’s capture all students (14% at CC, first time/full time) but only a small percentage (about 4%)
  • Standardize reporting questions (such as completions success) so all schools report same data.
  • What is length of certificate or master’s degree as this information makes a difference in the GR at 150 or GR at 200.
  • Has anyone considered the length of time required for veterans or service members with disabilities?
  • 1st reporting will be late 2014.
  • There will be progressive data analytics.
  • Entitlement-can put eligibility standards in place to prevent excessicve borrowing of service members or vets?
  • Who is the audience for this data? It will be the student so they will be able to make informed decisions as to their education.
  • Why is this the only work entitlement (benefit) for service members that the current administration is concerned about? It is not about what the service member thinks they want and need, but about what they really need, so this information will be provided to them on the website: this will be public knowledge, and open for all to access.
  • Weights will be given to the different reporting data (still to be determined), and will not be directly tied to the rating system (only indirectly). The purpose is not to hurt schools, but to inform the public.
  • What about the vet vs. post 9/11 transfer of benefits (to their dependents), who is tracking that? Will it skew the data?
  • The measurables should be focuses on course outcomes and not on program completion.
  • TA will only pay for 145 hours for an undergraduate degree, and 40 for a graduate degree, the same type of measurables should be utilized with this system as in the TA system already established.
  • Self-reporting must be verifiable-this is to prevent misrepresentation of student data from schools.
  • DoD is working on having the military show as a separate category in reporting.
  • The median borrow rate should be measured across all schools, with cost of attendance (to include fees) and how that differs across all schools and within school types.
  • The DoE has a Financial Aid Shopping Cart that could be adopted by the VA and DoD.
  • VAOnce already has a way of tracking almost all of this; can the FA and TA be linked to it in some fashion, for ease in reporting?
  • Almost all of this is already being asked for by various agencies. It is up to each school to determine where and how this is already being reported, and to collate it into one complete data sheet for this initiative.
  • This data is for the first time/full time student. Once the student skips even one term, or transfers to another school (even though no time has been lost) they are no longer considered as first time students.
  • Are those students who leave the service lost in the tracking? They could be, but the clearing house should be able to track students.
  • Schools who share students must still report (could lead to double counting).
  • Some of the measureable are of no importance, and should be re-examined. Also the redundancy across Federal, state and accrediting bodies is out of hand. Schools are now required to hire huge numbers of employees just to track what is being asked to measure. This has an impact on tuition. Should be streamlined.
  • Can credit scores and other forms of aid (TA/VA, scholarships) be counted when determining amount to be allowed to borrow for school?
  • There is a GI Bill Comparison tool meant to be a guide to the student before borrowing to attend school.