The Weight of the Metric: Performance Funding and the Retention of Historically Underserved Students

Abstract

ABSTRACTPerformance funding policies allocate state appropriations to public institutions based in part on retention and completion outcomes, and equity metrics allocate additional funding for graduating historically underserved students. Through interviews of 52 college administrators and state policymakers, I explore campus responses to performance funding equity metrics at five 4-year institutions with varying missions in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Findings suggest that equity metrics prompted institutions to develop mentoring programs for students of color, increase faculty advising, and create more targeted scholarships for lower-income students. However, the policy led to higher admissions standards at one access-oriented institution, and efforts to recruit more academically qualified students at all institutions, indicative of actions unintended by the policy designers. These actions could lead to increased stratification, where underrepresented students are disproportionally enrolled at less selective colleges. Performance metrics to incentivize the retention of underrepresented students do not appear to fully mitigate institutional attempts to increase selectivity.