“This is a huge step in the right direction . . . Not only does a system like this serve as a diagnostic tool for the accrediting body, it also helps the schools themselves understand their performance in comparison to their peers and competitors,” tweeted higher education quality advocate Barmak Nassirian sharing the Inside Higher Ed story about WSCUC’s newly- public Key Indicators Dashboard (KID).

The headline from Inside Higher Ed, “Western Accreditor Goes Deeper on Data” (8/30/21), and the article put in context WSCUC’s important step forward on data transparency and include positive reactions from the higher education community. And the kudos have been coming in directly to WSCUC and via social media.

• The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) tweeted, “To know whether students are being served well by their institutions, we first need to know how institutions are serving students – thank you @wascsenior for this important first step.”
• The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) issued a statement saying, “We know that disaggregated data can reveal opportunities for improvement and target equity-focused student supports. In contrast, when trends, barriers, and student groups are not visible in aggregated data, they remain invisible in policy conversations as well. We appreciate WASC Senior College and University Commission’s creation of the Key Indicators Dashboard (KID) to harness the power of data. Students have much to gain when accreditors bring data to bear on institutional improvement conversations with their campuses.”
• And Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities (AICCU) President Kristen Soares wrote, “This is a wonderful tool and a powerful way for our institutions to meaningfully benchmark.”

The KID is available to the public here: