PULLMAN, Wash.- Washington State University has joined the Voluntary System of Accountability project (VSA), a nationwide effort to provide information to students, parents, counselors and others in order to compare institutions and experiences.
WSU is among 302 public colleges and universities to join the VSA and launch their own College Portraits as part of the newly created VSA College Portrait Web site. This Web site provides consistent and comparable information about schools’ characteristics, costs, student experiences and learning outcomes in a user-friendly format.
“The program allows potential students and parents to have data on academics, costs, experiences, the campus environment, success, progress and learning outcomes of current students comparable to other institutions the family may be considering for college attendance,” said Fran Hermanson, associate director of Institutional Research at WSU. “The information will inform constituents of how WSU is meeting its mission and commitment to the education of tomorrow’s leaders.”
The project is led and coordinated by the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges and the American Association of State College and Universities. It was created to encourage greater accountability by universities and institutions by providing the public with transparent information in a common format for all universities involved.
“WSU has an interest in meeting the objectives that were set forth by this initiative to demonstrate accountability and stewardship to the public, measure educational outcomes to identify effective educational practices, and assemble information that is accessible, understandable, and comparable,” Hermanson said.
WSU regularly assessed student learning before the College Portrait launch; however, this new approach encourages the university to remain committed to providing accurate and updated assessments information to the public in the future.
The College Portrait template was designed by the VSA board and includes information collected by numerous nationally reported data sources. The VSA has prescribed the data sources that an institution must use to populate the portrait in order to avoid biases.
To learn more about the VSA and search for college portraits, visit www.collegeportraits.org. WSU’s College Portrait can be found directly at https://www.ir.wsu.edu/docs/VSA_CP2007.pdf.
