We all know how important it is to evaluate the performance of educational institutions, such as universities and colleges. These performance measurements are actually needed in the assessment of the quality of education offered by universities and colleges at hand. And when it comes to ensuring accurate measurement of such performance, there then is a need to implement metrics for education evaluation. This way, the metrics would be geared and directed to measure and evaluate the quality of education offered by the institution, as well as the performance of all aspects of the institution combined.

When it comes to the performance measurements themselves, they can either be qualitative or quantitative. Quantitative metrics are simpler to deal with because they are already measurable in nature. One of the commonly used quantitative performance measurement used by schools is the assessment of research funding. The typical academic institution would have to undergo research of some sort, and funding would certainly be one of the entailed associations here. The assessment would then be quantitative in nature simply because this is just an evaluation of how the funding was processed – more importantly, if it was processed accurately and successfully. Was the portion assigned to the purchasing of media equipment really used to purchase media equipment? How about the budget for sports equipment? This is quite easy to deal with because these are already numerical in nature.

What is more difficult to deal with are qualitative metrics. Just how can you expect to extrapolate improvement in terms of quality from growth in quantity? To illustrate, let us say that the number of graduates for this academic year has increased from that of last year. This quantifiable figure should then be translated into qualitative growth in terms of improvement in the quality of education offered by the college or university, right? It is so easy to assume this is so, but in reality, you cannot assume this right off the bat. This is because there could be more graduates this academic year due to the fact that the coursework offered by the institution has degraded somehow, thereby making it less challenging to deal with as a whole. This is the complete opposite of improvement, in spite of the fact that the quantifiable figures are leaning towards supposed improvement.

Another common case to ponder on is the population of graduating seniors who rate the university as excellent as a whole, in terms of experience. This quantifiable metric does not really bring forth significant qualitative results when translated because the concept of “excellent” here would be undoubtedly relative from one senior to another. How then can you expect this metric to shed off relevant information? This is precisely why there is a need to select quantity targets as carefully as possible. This way, the quality of education would be reflected more accurately in the long run.

If you are not too sure about which metrics for education evaluation to use, then do not fret just yet. The Internet is laden with sources that can help you in this endeavor. Just think of these sources as templates that can guide you in developing your balanced scorecard along the way.

By: Sam Miller