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Research ArticleIII. Policy Interventions: Incentives, Controls, and Metrics
Open Access

Looking Inside the Black Box of Performance Funding for Higher Education: Policy Instruments, Organizational Obstacles, and Intended and Unintended Impacts

Kevin J. Dougherty, Sosanya M. Jones, Hana Lahr, Rebecca S. Natow, Lara Pheatt, Vikash Reddy
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences April 2016, 2 (1) 147-173; DOI: https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2016.2.1.07
Kevin J. Dougherty
aAssociate professor of education policy and senior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University
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Sosanya M. Jones
bAssistant professor of qualitative research methods and higher education at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
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Hana Lahr
cDoctoral student in education policy and research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University
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Rebecca S. Natow
dSenior research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University
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Lara Pheatt
eDoctoral student in politics and education and research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College
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Vikash Reddy
eDoctoral student in politics and education and research associate at the Community College Research Center at Teachers College
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Abstract

For several decades, policymakers have been concerned about increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of postsecondary institutions. In recent years, performance funding—which directly connects state funding to an institution's performance on indicators such as student persistence, credit accrual, and college completion—has become a particularly attractive way of pursuing better college outcomes. But even as states have made an enormous investment in performance funding, troubling questions have been raised about whether performance funding has the effects intended and whether it also produces substantial negative side effects in the form of restrictions in access for underrepresented students and weakening of academic standards. This paper addresses these troubling questions by drawing on data richer than heretofore available. In addition to drawing on the existing body of research on performance funding, it reports data from a study of the implementation of performance funding in three leading states (Indiana, Ohio, and Tennessee) and its impacts on three universities and three community colleges in each state.

  • performance funding
  • performance-based funding
  • outcomes-based funding
  • higher education accountability
  • educational accountability
  • public accountability
  • performance management
  • performance-based management
  • quality assurance
  • higher education policy
  • college quality
  • Copyright © 2016 by Russell Sage Foundation. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Reproduction by the United States Government in whole or in part is permitted for any purpose. We wish to thank Lumina Foundation for its support for this research. The views expressed in this report are those of its authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Lumina Foundation, its officers or employees. We also wish to thank Ronald Abrams, Steven Brint, Charles Clotfelter, Kevin Corcoran, Russ Deaton, Alicia Dowd, William Doyle, Nicholas Hillman, Davis Jenkins, Alison Kadlec, Marcus Kolb, Vanessa Morest, John Muffo, Richard Petrick, Jeffrey Stanley, Susan Shelton, David Tandberg, Sean Tierney, and William Zumeta for their comments on earlier papers and reports that have fed into this paper. Any remaining errors are our own. Direct correspondence to: Kevin Dougherty at dougherty{at}tc.edu, Teachers College, Columbia University, Box 11, 525 W. 120th St., New York, NY 10027; Sosanya M. Jones at smjones{at}siu.edu; Hana Lahr at hel2112{at}tc.columbia.edu; Rebecca S. Natow at rebeccanatow{at}yahoo.com; Lara Pheatt at lep2148{at}tc.columbia.edu; Vikash Reddy at vtr2107{at}tc.columbia.edu.

Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences: 2 (1)
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Vol. 2, Issue 1
1 Apr 2016
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Looking Inside the Black Box of Performance Funding for Higher Education: Policy Instruments, Organizational Obstacles, and Intended and Unintended Impacts
Kevin J. Dougherty, Sosanya M. Jones, Hana Lahr, Rebecca S. Natow, Lara Pheatt, Vikash Reddy
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Apr 2016, 2 (1) 147-173; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2016.2.1.07

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Looking Inside the Black Box of Performance Funding for Higher Education: Policy Instruments, Organizational Obstacles, and Intended and Unintended Impacts
Kevin J. Dougherty, Sosanya M. Jones, Hana Lahr, Rebecca S. Natow, Lara Pheatt, Vikash Reddy
RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences Apr 2016, 2 (1) 147-173; DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2016.2.1.07
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  • Article
    • Abstract
    • POLICY INSTRUMENTS AND THEIR IMMEDIATE IMPACTS
    • ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING IN RESPONSE TO PERFORMANCE FUNDING
    • INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES IN KEEPING WITH THE AIMS OF PERFORMANCE FUNDING
    • STUDENT OUTCOMES
    • OBSTACLES TO EFFECTIVELY RESPONDING TO PERFORMANCE FUNDING
    • UNINTENDED IMPACTS OF PERFORMANCE FUNDING
    • SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
    • Acknowledgments
    • FOOTNOTES
    • REFERENCES
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
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More in this TOC Section

  • Pricing and University Autonomy: Tuition Deregulation in Texas
  • The Promises and Pitfalls of Measuring Community College Quality
Show more III. Policy Interventions: Incentives, Controls, and Metrics

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Keywords

  • performance funding
  • performance-based funding
  • outcomes-based funding
  • higher education accountability
  • educational accountability
  • public accountability
  • performance management
  • performance-based management
  • quality assurance
  • higher education policy
  • college quality

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