Linking classroom performance to the institutional mission statement

Abstract

A higher education institution’s mission statement should communicate its purpose and goals to both internal and external stakeholders. Unless there is a means of assessing the statement’s efficacy, it is little more than a vacuous public relations contrivance. Most teaching institutions’ mission statements directly or indirectly speak to student learning. Focusing on business schools, a literature review found little evidence of mission statement influence at the individual course level. Studies assessing the linkage between individual courses and the school’s mission statement are few. More comprehensive studies assessing the linkage from assemblages of multiple-section courses, majors, and programs could not be located in the available literature. This article presents a unique and cost-effective mathematical model that can be used to link aggregated student performance in individual courses to the institutional mission statement. Its utility permits the aggregation and disaggregation of data facilitating comparisons and contrasts performance within and across majors, required and elective, and general education within a curriculum in relation to the institution’s mission statement. Furthermore, the model could be used to isolate and compare and contrast targeted subgroups by class standing, faculty rank, experience, and full- or part-time status.