Linking Planning and Assessment
To ensure the success of the 2017–2022 Strategic Plan, the Graduate Center will implement an assessment process to measure progress toward achieving its major goals. The process will evaluate educational and institutional effectiveness and relay conclusions to relevant decision makers. It will be linked to ongoing reviews, such as the 10-year doctoral and master’s program review cycle, Middle States Commission on Higher Education review cycle, annual CUNY Performance Management Process, and seven-year doctoral learning assessment.
To link planning and assessment, the Office of the Provost, in partnership with the Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness and the Learning Outcomes Assessment Committee, will:
- Identify planning objectives and empirical measures of success (measurable performance outcomes or MPO) for each of the four priority areas to facilitate progress on achieving the goals.
- Specify strategic actions that relate to each MPO and translate these strategic actions into performance plans for the relevant Graduate Center offices.
- Create an assessment timeline that relates each strategic action to both short- and long-term planning objectives, and use this assessment process to refine the strategic actions, while staying responsive to evolving budgetary conditions.
- Integrate existing assessments, such as doctoral and master’s program reviews; doctoral program learning assessments; research center and institute reviews; administrative office reviews; Middle States reviews; and applicant, student, and alumni surveys, with the strategic planning/ assessment process and timeline.
- Reevaluate the selection of peer institutions and aspirational peer institutions for benchmarking.
- Close the planning/assessment loop by using assessment tools to review the Strategic Plan every 18 months to make modifications in institutional policies and resource allocations that flow from this assessment, and use results to inform the next Strategic Plan.
