Lesson 1: What are success benchmarks?

Imagine you just scored and analyzed the data from the capstone project for the student learning outcome that was in the example rubric in the previous unit. The results are below. They show the percentage of students that scored at each performance level for each criteria. For example, 31% of students scored at the "Mastery" level for the criteria "Business Problem & Target" and 10% of students scored at the "Needs Improvement Level". By looking at these numbers can you determine if the program is doing well in teaching students what they are supposed to learn and if there are still learning gaps that need to be addressed?

The problem is that without a benchmark to evaluate the data against, it is impossible to answer the question of whether or not the program is teaching students what it is supposed to teach them and if students are learning what they are supposed to learn.

Now imagine that along with the scored data you also have the following benchmarks:

• 85% of students should score at the "Proficiency" or above level (at least a 3) in all criteria
• No more that 5% of students should score at the "Needs Improvement" (1) level in all criteria

Using these benchmarks it becomes much easier to determine where the curriculum and instruction is working well and students are learning what they are supposed to learn. It is also easier to see where there are problems in the curriculum. For example, in identifying and analyzing the business problem and target, students are meeting the benchmark with 96% of students scoring at the "Proficiency" and "Mastery" level and only 2% scoring at the "Needs Improvement" level. Inversely, developing an original and impactful creative idea scored below the benchmark with only 70% of students scoring at the "Proficiency" and "Mastery" level and 10% scoring at the "Needs Improvement" level. Therefore, the data with the benchmark provide key information on what areas in the curriculum need to be revised and what areas are working well. In this example, the curriculum focused on analyzing the business problem and target are working well while the curriculum focused on developing the creative idea needs to be reviewed and improved.File:Assessment Analysis.pdf

What are Success Benchmarks and Success Targets?

Success benchmarks for student learning are "the minimally acceptable student achievement or performance level" (Suskie, 2018). So, in the example above the success benchmark for achievement is "Proficiency" or higher. Success targets for student learning are the "proportion of students that should achieve at least that minimally acceptable level" (Suskie, 2018). So, in e example above one of the success targets is that 85% achieving a level of "Proficiency" or higher.

Two key principles of success benchmarks and success targets are as follows:

1. Defining what makes a good benchmark and target is being able to determine what is good enough. When determining the benchmark, think about what is the minimum achievement students would need to attain in order for them to have learned what they are supposed to learn.

In addition, they should be rigorous yet realistic. If the benchmark is too low and all students are achieving it, it may be that the curriculum is not truly preparing students to learn what they need to learn to be successful. However, if the benchmark is too high and very few students are achieving it, it may lead to wasting time and resources making unnecessary curriculum revisions.

2. The scored data only has meaning if there is something to compare it to. Just having the raw numbers is insufficient for decision-making. There needs to be something to compare it to, like a benchmark and target. Otherwise, the raw data is meaningless