Compliance Status

Louisiana State University and A&M College is in compliance with this principle.

Narrative

Louisiana State University and A&M College (LSU) evaluates success with respect to student achievement consistent with its mission. Student achievement is a central tenet of the university’s mission:

As the Flagship institution of the state, the vision of Louisiana State University is to be a leading research-extensive university, challenging undergraduate and graduate students to achieve the highest levels of intellectual and personal development. Designated as a Land, Sea, and Space Grant institution, the mission of Louisiana State University is the generation, preservation, dissemination, and application of knowledge and cultivation of the arts.

In implementing its mission, LSU is committed to:

• offering a broad array of undergraduate degree programs and extensive graduate research opportunities designed to attract and educate highly qualified undergraduate and graduate students;
• employing faculty who are excellent teacher-scholars, nationally competitive in research and creative activities, and who contribute to a world-class knowledge base that is transferable to educational, professional, cultural, and economic enterprises; and
• using its extensive resources to solve economic, environmental, and social challenges [1].

(LSU Mission Statement approved December 2006; reaffirmed October 2012)

The university’s commitment to evaluating and improving student achievement is also conceptualized within LSU’s strategic plan Flagship 2020, which is based upon the university’s mission and which focuses on the goals of discovery, learning, diversity, and engagement [2]. Specifically, the performance indicators for the goal of learning—to “enhance a faculty-led and student-centered learning environment that develops engaged citizens and enlightened leaders”—include some of the following measures: number of degrees awarded; six-year graduate rate of new first-year students; number of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) degrees awarded; and number and retention of transfer students [3]. Data for these measures are compiled (see Table 1) and provided to the University Planning Council (UPC), an advisory committee to the executive vice chancellor and provost that is charged with recommending strategic directions for the university and with overseeing the planning process and its implementation throughout the campus [4].

The Louisiana Granting Resources and Autonomics for Diplomas (GRAD) Act, enacted by the Louisiana State Legislature in 2010, also requires LSU and other public postsecondary education institutions in Louisiana to “achieve specific, measurable performance objectives aimed at improving college completion” [5]. In exchange for achieving these objectives, institutions are granted “limited operational autonomy and flexibility” (e.g., relative to budgetary management, capital outlay, risk management, and procurement) [6]. These performance objectives include, for example, the following:

• increase the (cohort) graduation rate and graduation productivity goals consistent with institutional peers;
• increase the percentage of program completers at all levels each year; and
• increase passage rates on licensure and certification exams.

A more specific listing of LA GRAD requirements is given in the attached table [7]. In this third year of reporting, LSU met or exceeded nearly all of its annual benchmarks, which were set and based upon the university’s historical trends [8] [9].

LSU is also committed to evaluating student achievement and publically reporting it via a number of other different sources. The LSU Office of Budget and Planning, a unit whose mission is to “provide timely, accurate, and useful information to decision makers to assist them in making decisions that are congruent with the vision, mission, and goals of LSU,” compiles a variety of data and provides public access to these data on its Website [10]. These data include, for example, the university’s annual “Fall Facts,” various trend data, common data sets, budget information, tuition and fee data, and student data reports [11].

Additionally, LSU reports various student achievement data to other state, federal, and higher education entities. For example, LSU participates in the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), which provides comparable information (e.g., student retention rates) for more than 300 public, four-year institutions [12]. LSU also reports student achievement data to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), and a number of external survey companies, such as U.S. News and The Princeton Review [13][14][15][16].  These standards enable LSU to compare its student achievement to other similar and/or peer institutions.

LSU also considers the following criteria for measuring and demonstrating student achievement: enrollment data; student retention; student graduation records; course completion; job placement rates; and results of state, regional, and national licensing examinations. Deemed as appropriate measures of student achievement by the various (above-mentioned) state, federal, and higher education entities, LSU has likewise defined these criteria as appropriate.

Enrollment

LSU has worked to increase its student enrollment [17]. Overall, the institution’s enrollment continues to demonstrate steady growth, increasing nearly 4% over the last five years. 

Retention, Graduation, Course Completion and Job Placement Rates

Student Retention

LSU tracks the retention of new first-year students into the second and subsequent years [18]. As shown in Table 3, the percentage of first-year students returning for the fall of their second year has consistently been between 83 and 85 percent, while the returning rate for fall of the third and fourth years has increased to 75 and 69 percent, respectively. Returning rates into the fall of the fifth and sixth years have dropped as the efforts to increase graduation rates in the fourth and fifth years have been successful.

Graduation Rates

Graduation rates have steadily risen over the past 10 years. The cumulative percentage of first-year students graduating after four years increased nearly 11% from 2003 to 2008 (see Table 4). Similarly, the cumulative percentage of first-year students graduating in five years increased from 52% to 62.4% and in six years increased from 58.9% to 65%.

Course Completion

Course completion is measured via student retention and graduation rates (as shown above). As shown in Table 4 (above), LSU’s six-year graduation rate for full-time, first-time, degree-seeking new students continues to improve, increasing from 60.7% in 2003 to 66.7% in 2006.

In an effort to improve its course completion rate, the university implemented the Comprehensive Tracking System (CATS) in 2008 [19]. CATS is designed to help students achieve academic success at LSU and assess their progress toward degree completion. Each degree program has a recommended path (e.g., Bachelor of Science in Chemistry) that is optimal for graduation in four years (or five years for a small number of degrees) [20]. Students must meet certain minimum requirements or critical tracking criteria within the recommended paths to demonstrate minimal progress toward degree completion. Critical tracking criteria typically include both critical courses and minimum GPA requirements.  Students who do not meet the criteria are flagged and ineligible to register for the following semester until the student meets with the appropriate advisor for academic counseling.  

Students who do not meet the GPA requirements are referred to the Center for Academic Success (CAS), whose mission is to enrich student learning by offering a wide range of programs and services.  Specifically, CAS provides students with learning strategies education and consultations to help increase academic performance. Content-specific support provides resources, such as tutoring and supplemental instruction, to assist students to succeed in historically difficult courses. Instructional support is provided for faculty who wish to assist students to increase their learning potential.  

Those students who remain off-track for multiple semesters must seek academic advising as well as advising from the office of Career Services to better align the student’s interests and skill sets with an appropriate major. In addition, the university created in 2009 the First-Year Experience to expand the support structure for first-year students with particular emphasis on increasing academic success.

Job Placement

Job-placement information is available through the Office of Career Services, which conducts the Graduating Student Survey each semester [21]. According to the 2012-13 survey, approximately 63 percent of LSU graduates indicated they would most likely be employed full-time upon graduating, while an estimated 24 percent indicated they would be attending a graduate or professional school on full-time basis. Additionally, a number of colleges collect more detailed job-placement information, including the specific locations of where their individual graduates are employed upon graduation or where they have been accepted into a graduate or professional program [22].

Licensing Examination

Licensure or certification examination rates are maintained by individual degree programs and/or at the college level. Passage rates for these various examinations are monitored annually to ensure that LSU students meet or exceed the minimum requirements for professional practice. To measure student achievement, comparisons are made to national scores, historical data, or other benchmarks.

The School of Education within the College of Human Sciences and Education, for example, collects state licensing examination data from the PRAXIS Series, which provide information on teacher candidate content and pedagogical knowledge. During the past four academic years, passage rates for the PRAXIS II examination ranged from 98 to nearly 100 percent across the majority of participants, and more than 1,000 LSU candidates were successfully prepared to enter the workforce. Program faculty use passage data plus score ranges as tools for the review and analysis of program strengths and areas needing improvement. In addition, College of Human Sciences and Education staff members conduct periodic analyses of these data, such as study of PRAXIS attempts, scores, and grade-point averages (content and professional education) to determine possible correlations between PRAXIS and academic performance. Review of respective PRAXIS data and analyses allows program faculty to determine patterns of scores, if any, that might point to areas to enhance (strengths) and areas to address. Weaknesses, as evidenced by marginal scores and, in some cases, by candidate feedback on performance in these areas, direct faculty attention to areas where additional emphasis is needed in content, pedagogical, and/or technical instruction and experiences. 

The Department of Accounting within the College of Business reviews the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination passage rates provided by the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA). The NASBA compiles data regarding candidate performance at the national level used as a relative benchmark and by jurisdiction and school.  The tables below summarize performance by LSU candidates as compared to all candidates in the nation.

The School of Veterinary Medicine reviews the results of the National Veterinary Licensing Examination (NAVLE) provided by the National Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners. Since the exam was first given in 2001, the passage percentages at graduation have ranged from 96 to 100 percent—well above the American Veterinary Medical Association accreditation benchmark of 80 percent.

The College of Engineering reviews the results of the Fundamentals of Engineering Results for each area within engineering. Individual degree programs examine overall pass rates, comparisons to national passage rate and, in some cases, examine individual question areas within the examinations. As shown in Table 8, LSU's passage rates are consistently above 70% and overall just below the national average.

The School of Social Work reviews the results of the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) social work licensing examinations, particularly the first-time passage rates for the Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) and for the Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) examinations. The school compares its passage rates to both the state and national averages, as well as over a five-year period of time, each year in its strategic plan annual review. As shown in Tables 9 and 10, the passage rates for LSU students for both examinations exceeded the state and national averages for most years.