institutional effectiveness

Definition

The systematic assessment of how well an institution achieves its mission and goals, required by accreditors who need evidence of improvement beyond good intentions. It's the academic version of showing your work in math class, applied to entire universities.

Example Usage

The institutional effectiveness report ran to 300 pages of data demonstrating what everyone already knew: some programs thrived while others needed help, but now it was officially documented.

Origin

Formalized in higher education during outcomes assessment movement of the 1980s-90s

Fun Fact

Institutional effectiveness offices generate enormous amounts of data that institutions then struggle to actually use for improvement, creating the ironic situation of effectively measuring ineffectiveness.

Source: Regional accreditation standards and assessment best practices

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