US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

§18B-1B-8. Higher education accountability; institutional and statewide report cards.

Effective on the first day of July, two thousand one:
(a) The commission is directed to make information available to parents, students, faculty, staff, state policymakers and the general public on the quality and performance of public higher education. This information shall be consistent and comparable between and among the state institutions of higher education and, if applicable, comparable with information from peer institutions in the region and the nation.
(b) On or before the first day of July, two thousand one, the chancellor shall review policy series sixteen, related to the higher education report card, of the rules of the board of trustees and board of directors and determine whether a new rule should be adopted providing for the collection, analysis and dissemination of data and information on the performance of the state institutions of higher education, including health sciences education, in relation to the findings, directives, goals and objectives set forth in section one-a, article one of this chapter, the institutional compacts and in comparison to their peers. The rules shall provide the legislative oversight commission on education accountability with full and accurate information while minimizing the institutional burden of recordkeeping and reporting. The rules shall include uniform definitions for the various indicators of student and institutional performance and guidelines for the collection and reporting of data and the preparation, printing and distribution of report cards under this section. The report card forms shall provide for brief, concise reporting in nontechnical language of required information. Any technical or explanatory material which a governing board wishes to include shall be contained in a separate appendix available for a reasonable fee to the general public upon request.
(c) The president or chief executive officer of each public college, university or community and technical college shall prepare and submit annually all requested data to the commission at the time established by the commission.
The commission shall prepare report cards for institutions under their jurisdiction and in accordance with the guidelines set forth in this section and rules promulgated under this section.
(d) The higher education central office staff under the direction of the vice chancellor for administration shall provide technical assistance to each institution and governing board in data collection and reporting and is responsible for assembling the statewide report card from information submitted by each governing board. The statewide report card shall include the data for each institution for each separately listed, applicable indicator and the aggregate of the data for all public institutions of higher education. The statewide report card shall be prepared using actual institutional, state, regional and national data, as applicable and available, indicating the present performance of the individual institutions, the governing boards and the state system of higher education. The report card also shall include goals and trends for the institutions and the higher education system and shall include all the information required either by statute or by rule as authorized in subsection (b) of this section. Statewide report cards shall be based upon information for the current school year or for the most recent school year for which the information is available, in which case such year shall be clearly footnoted.
(e) The statewide report card shall be completed and disseminated with copies to the legislative oversight commission on education accountability prior to the first day of January of each year.
(f) For a reasonable fee, the chancellor shall make copies of the report cards available to any individual requesting them.