Texas Performance-Based Funding: Examination of Relationships between Success Points and Variables at Community Colleges

Date

2021-11-01

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Abstract

A portion of state-allocated funding for Texas community colleges has been reserved for the completion of outcome metrics, also known as performance-based funding. Texas community college leaders are faced with the challenges of adapting to increasing pressures from performance-based funding, while also ensuing institutional missions and goals are met. The problem addressed in this study was the perceived imbalances, inequities, or consequences between state-implemented performance measures, student demographics, and success points generated at Texas community colleges. There were several purposes to this study that examined the relationships between performance-based funding outcome measures and the generation of student success points. The participants in this study were all Texas community colleges or community college systems that received performance-based funding and reported student success points for the 2017-2019 academic years. Results from this study indicated several outcome measures were statistically significant to the generation of student success points. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the combination of specific independent variables, including ethnic and non-ethnic group variables statistically significantly contributed to the generation of success points. Several key findings, implications, and recommendations were addressed in this study and were categorized into the key areas: (a) correlation between independent variables; (b) student demographics treated independently; (c) all student demographics combined; (d) certificate or degree completion as a major contributor to student success point variance; and (e) time to certificate or degree completion. Major recommendations were addressed for state lawmakers, community college leaders, and researchers. Among these recommendations were the importance of state lawmakers to work directly with key community college leadership and for researchers of performance-based funding to help with the review and creation of ongoing successful performance-based funding measures. Community college leaders should be educated through the review of performance-based funding literature and understand the importance of hiring key officials that understand performance-based funding. Finally, state lawmakers should be aware of unintended consequences for community colleges with performance-based funding. Community college leaders should not be penalized by performance-based funding measures, either directly or indirectly, for admitting certain ethnic groups and serving the needs of their communities.

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Keywords

Performance-based funding, Performance-based funding 1.0, Performance-based funding 2.0, Success points, Community colleges, Texas community colleges, Universities, Base-plus funding, Enrollment-based funding, Policy diffusion

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