The Associate Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness oversees Southwestern’s comprehensive assessment program. The work of assessment includes evaluation at three key levels: institution-wide, degree program, and departmental.
Each degree program and department establishes a mission, goals, objectives and outcomes, and target achievements on an annual basis. Findings are evaluated at the end of each academic year and then action plans are developed for the subsequent year for areas of needed improvement. Southwestern also assesses its performance on an institution-wide level through the strategic planning process conducted by the president’s cabinet.
This comprehensive assessment structure was established in 2008 and is an annual element of institutional operation.
The following student achievement data is provided on this site:
1. Retention from Fall to Spring for the most recent academic year.
a. Disaggregated by degree type and ethnicity.
b. Disaggregated by degree type and gender.
c. In all cases, the institution’s target retention rate is 85% or higher.
d. *Please note, cohorts with 10 or less members can have high variance.
2. Graduation rates calculated using the IPEDS calculation parameters for first-time, full-time cohorts at 150% of normal time for the most recently completed academic year. This method is also used to report graduation rates to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges on their annual profile.
c. Disaggregated by extension site.
d. In all cases, the institution’s target retention rate is 50% or higher.
e. * indicates a cohort of 10 or less members. High variance may occur in cohorts of this size.
f. N/A indicates that no students of this ethnicity are present in the reported cohort.
