eyler 1984 the politics of quality in higher education.pdf
TRANSCRIPT
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Quality initiatives that serve important state goals garner needed
long-term support.
The Politics of Qualityin Higher Education
Janet Eyler
In Lake Woeuegone, Minnesota, that quintessentii- -an{ imaginary-American hometown celebrated by “Prairie Home Companion,”where
all the men are good looking, all the women are strong, and all the chil-
dren are above average, a goal of educational quality would not neces-
sarily cause conflict. But, in the rest of the world, where only one quar-
ter can be in the top 25 percent, the goal of quality in higher education
is inherently conflictual. During the period of growth, when increased
access was the primary goal for higher education, there was something
for everyone. Institutions requested and received the resources neededfor expansion of programs, and powerful local and regional interests
were served by the creation of new institutions. With the demise of
growth in this era of static resources, attention is being focused on the
demonstrated effectiveness of institutions in meeting quality goals.
Quality implies making judgments and maintaining standards. If stan-
dards are set high, then some students will not measure u p, some insti-
tutions will be judged mediocre, some programs will be found lacking,
and some research a nd development efforts will be less effective. Where
quality goals determine the allocation of limited resources, there will be
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winners and losers. The resolution of conflict among participants for
scarce resources is what politics is all about.
Several types of conflict occur. First, the inherently redistribu-
tive focus of quality-related policies, which direct limited resourcestoward particular programs or outcomes, creates political conflict
between winners and losers. There is tremendous pressure for even dis-
tribution of resources to similar institutions within a policy subsystem,
such as higher education. A related conflict flows from the difficulty in
creating consensus about definitions of quality in higher education.
Individual quality-related programs can focus attention on different
aspects of the higher education mission, so that some will be concerned
with instructional effectiveness, some with the economic impact of
research and development, and some with the national prestige of aninstitution’s faculty and programs. Diverse institutions may find that
their primary missions are not included in efforts to upgrade institu-
tional quality; they will then push for more inclusive quality initiatives.
Finally, state involvement in efforts to improve the quality of higher
education raises fears of intrusion into academic affairs that tradi-
tionally have been handled within the college or university. Programs
that provide resources to fund new efforts will be more acceptable than
programs that focus on measuring an institution’s success in achieving
its mission.The critical issue for higher education reform in the 1980swill be
the extent to which quality initiatives can be identified that have a n effect
on institutional quality and that can be sustained politically over time.
In this chapter, the political factors that will affect whether quality
issues can continue to remain a part of the active policy agenda are exam-
ined. The characteristics of several specific quality initiatives that will af-
fect their ability to be implemented and sustained over time are described.
Ca n Higher Education Quality Remaino n the Active Political Agenda?
The emergence of higher education quality on the active policy
agenda is somewhat unexpected. The end of growth might have meant
the shift of attention and resources to other issues, but economic stag-
nation and public outcry about the rising tide of mediocrity in public
schools have made education a priority in many states. Higher educa-
tion has benefited from this increased attention to educational quality,
and a number of states have developed quality improvement initiativesfor their colleges and universities.
Whether higher education quality can remain on the active
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political agenda long enough to sustain these initiatives will depend
partly on the resolution of the conflict between the need for quality
efforts to demonstrate superior achievement and political pressures to
distribute resources widely a nd to de-emphasize comparative standardsof quality. The resolution of this conflict may depend in turn on the
nature of specific quality initiatives and on changes in the political
environment in which these initiatives must be sustained.
Th e Politics of Com parative Standards
As long as excellence is a comparative concept, at least half the
institutions will be losers. Only a few colleges and universities will have
graduates whose average scores are near the top on achievement tests,and these schools will tend to be elite institutions that attract outstand-
ing students. Less than 10 percent of the 3,000 institutions of higher
education are centers of nationally recognized research and develop-
ment. Most institutions of higher education have undergraduate instruc-
tion and preparation of students for vocational roles as their primary
mission. Even where excellence is measured through preparation of
graduates for jo b placement, half the institutions will be below average
as long as a comparative standard is used.
When resources are limited, programs for educational excel-lence are one of the few areas in which new resources can be justified.
Unde r these conditions, there is tremendous pressure to dilute compar-
ative standards. Politics is a continuous cycle. From initial emergence
on the active policy agenda, through policy formulation, adoption, and
implementation, policies are continuously being reshaped. Groups that
are cohesive an d well organized and that find particular policies highly
salient stay involved throughout the process and continually seek to
influence policy to serve their interest (Anderson, 1979). Thus, once
the initial excitement over an issue has passed and programs have beenadopted, the attention of politicians, media, and the public shifts to
new issues, leaving the groups most directly affected by the program to
continue to influence how it is carried out. Policies that originated in a
crisis and that were designed to target resources on a specific problem
have a tendency to be diluted over time so that resources can be distrib-
uted more widely. Just as redistributive policies tend to become distrib-
utive over time, plans to tie resources to evidence of success are rarely
successful (Hargrove, 1981). There are tremendous institutional pres-
sures both to make accountability standards so vague that invidiouscomparisons cannot be made and to fail to follow through on evalua-
tion. Once a program is established, the same pressures that unfocus
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funding and undermine accountability create a tendency to incorporate
special funding into the institution’s core funding so that the program is
no longer singled out for extraordinary consideration.
Decisions affecting higher education are normally incrementaland made within a policy subsystem that includes governing and coor-
dinating boards, institutional representatives, and legislators with key
constituency or committee interests. Routine decision making rarely
involves groups outside this subsystem for any sustained period. Par t
of the answer to the question of whether higher education quality and
accountability will remain on the policy agenda long enough to make a
difference will depend on the extent to which the political environment
in which higher education decisions are made has been altered to
include a new set of political actors who have a n interest in maintainingsuch programs.
The stagnation of the national economy and the belief that
added resources for research, development, and training can enhance
economic development have provided a major stimulus for quality ini-
tiatives. If this link continues to be perceived as important, then the
private-sector partners in industry-university collaborations and politi-
cal leaders concerned with economic development will be participants
in decision making within the higher education policy subsystem.
These new actors in the subsystem will help to sustain the flow ofresources, and they will have an interest in demonstrated results.
Another factor in the continued place of higher education qual-
ity on the policy agenda will be the perceived success of the myriad
initiatives now being taken. Success in obtaining resources an d success
in achieving quality goals may both be enhanced by the creation of
quality standards that are not comparative but that focus on quality
improvement.
The Politics of Quality Improvement
When standards of quality are comparative, most institutions
fear that they will not measure up. T he alternative that is most respon-
sive to the diverse missions of colleges and universities and their diverse
clienteles is a noncomparative standard that allows differential goals
and differential levels of attainment. One approach to such a standard
uses value-added measures. Here , the institution is judged not by what
students bring to the institution but by how much progress they make
while they are there. Another approach sets an achievement baselinefor the institution and asks for demonstrated improvement over time.
Improvement-based plans offer hope of success to all institu-
tions and thus enhance the likelihood of continued institutional support
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for the quality initiative. The criticism that value-added or other
improvement-based plans may not establish adequate standards for
graduates of specialized programs can be met through the establish-
ment of regulations that require minimum performance for progressthrough a program. Minimum standards are designed so that most stu-
students can attain them. Programs that force institutions to assist
students in achieving these goals should improve the general stan-
dard of quality. Standards can be set that students must meet in order
to progress through a program. Programs can be suspended or put
on probation if they fail to prepare students for licensure or other
exams.
The diverse goals that can be taken into account under quality
improvement initiatives allow equally diverse measures of achieve-ment. The legitimation of measured outcomes as a relevant indicator of
quality for higher education may have permanently altered the political
environment in which decisions about higher education are made. As
data about such diverse indicators of quality as successful job place-
ment in technical fields, academic achievement of undergraduates, test
placement of students in advanced fields, and research productivity
become publicly available, the insulation of institutional quality issues
from state oversight is reduced. Institutions may find themselves forced
to be responsive to quality concerns by documenting their own pro-grammatic efforts if they are to prevent intrusion by the state into tradi-
tional institutional domains (Mingle, 1981). This new availability of
output-related measures, often created by quality improvement initia-
tives, may be a key factor in helping to keep quality issues on the policy
agenda. The days in which institutional quality was assessed by input;
the money paid to faculty, prestige, test scores of entering freshman,
lavishness of the physical facilities, and so forth have passed. Quality is
no longer a mystery defined only by those within institutions of higher
learning. Legislators and other key decision makers are now convincedthat effectiveness not only can be demonstrated but that it must be
demonstrated to assure continued support.
The Politics of Control
Institutional resistance to external intrusion into its traditional
authority over academic matters may threaten sustained success of
some quality improvement efforts (Wallhaus, 1980). Policies must take
into consideration the inadequacy of a regulatory approach in improv-ing the substantive outputs of higher education. Colleges and universi-
ties are classic examples of the loosely coupled system (Weick, 1976).
The professional expertise and activity necessary to promote effective
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educational outcomes is difficult to specify in detail and impossible for
the state to monitor closely. Outcomes depend on the institution’s abil-
ity to create conditions under which professionals will bring their best
efforts to bear on promoting those outcomes. Some higher educationgoals are difficult to achieve in the short run; others can be attained
simultaneously with the achievement of other valued ends (Kramer,
1980). As Lipsky (1980) has noted, power to achieve key organizational
goals resides at the bottom in organizations, such as colleges and uni-
versities, that deliver complex human services.
Effective quality initiatives must consider the need for institu-
tional autonomy and create a balance between demands for accounta-
bility for results and freedom to organize the enterprise to achieve such
results. A key factor in the acceptability of any quality initiative will bethe extent to which it provides incentives for institutions to focus their
internal efforts on the attainment of quality goals.
The Politics of Specific Quality Incentives
In many states, the current concern with higher education qual-
ity has resulted in attempts to create specific quality improvement pro-
grams. Some are regulatory attempts to raise standards for admission
to colleges and universities. A number of others have been tied to thebudgetary process. Resources may be contingent on demonstrating
attainment of quality objectives, or resources may be directed to pro-
grams or projects that seek to achieve excellence in areas identified as
high priority by the state or as important to the institution’s own goals
(Folger and Smartt, forthcoming). The successful implementation of
any particular quality initiative will be shaped by the unique political
environment of the state in which it is introduced. The ability of the
program to be adapted and sustained over time will largely be deter-
mined by the support that can be gained from the groups primarilyaffected by the policies.
The approaches to quality improvement themselves have char-
acteristics that will affect how easily they can be adopted a nd sustained
under varying circumstances and conditions. Some politically impor-
tant characteristics of the innovation are visibility, cost, integration in-
to the core institutional mission and budget, distribution of funding,
accountability, and the nature of interest group support. In this sec-
tion, several types of quality-related initiatives are identified and char-
acteristics that will affect how and whether they can be sustained areexamined.
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Raising Standards for Admission. A majority of states have
taken steps to differentiate admission standards among their institu-
tions of higher education, to require more rigorous college preparatory
high school programs for admission into particular institutions, and toremove remedial high school-level work from colleges and universities.
This approach to quality improvement has several advantages. It is
clear that one of the best predictors of high achievement at graduation
is high level of achievement at matriculation. Raising admission stan-
dards is a symbolic act responsive to public outcry about lowered edu-
cational standards; it is simple to enact, it is inexpensive in the short
run, and it gives the appearance of improving quality without requir-
ing any major institutional changes. Changes in admissions standards
also affect public school policy. The recent tightening of admissionsstandards in Ohio originated with a commission that examined the
linkages between secondary and higher education. Similar efforts to
upgrade admissions standards in Tennessee are expected to create
pressures for curriculum improvement in some school districts where
students cannot now obtain all courses that will be needed for admis-
sion to four-year colleges when the new requirements are phased in
(Albright, forthcoming).
One major political liability of this strategy is that i t appears to
shift the focus from access for all groups in society to maintenance ofelite quality standards. Members of certain socioeconomic and minor-
i ty groups are more likely to be disproportionately exluded from admis-
sion to prestigious four-year institutions when standards are raised.
Unless remediation is made available for students who do not qualify
for four-year institutions, we can anticipate that this policy will reduce
the number of college graduates from less advantaged groups. Because
i t defines the institution not in terms of what it does to help educate stu-
dents but in terms of the standards that it maintains in recruiting stu-
dents, such a policy may have no measurable effect on what actuallygoes on in the instructional program.
State agencies may find that identifying standards for admission
and standards of progress meets their need to help institutions begin to
focus their mission more carefully. Policies about remedial work and
admission standards make clear to institutions the services they need to
provide. Tests of progress also draw attention to the need for instruc-
tion that allows students to meet minimal competencies. Combining
admissions standards with enrollment caps may help to channel stu-
dents into underenrolled institutions.Another major political concern raised by the establishment of
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standards is the dependence of institutions on enrollment for their
financial resources. A natural response to a decline in the number of
students available for higher education is to lower standards. Policies
that set standards must devise financing methods that will not penalizethe institutions that attract smaller populations of students as a result of
higher standards.
Pegormance Funding. Performance funding rewards institu-
tions for demonstrating effectiveness in the attainment of educational
goals. Unlike initiatives that target funds to improve the quality of par-
ticular programs, performance funding assumes that quality can be
improved by providing institutional leaders with incentives to focus
attention on the educational outcomes valued by state and citizenry.
With success, institutional leaders receive additional funding that maybe directed toward their own priorities (Bogue and Brown, 1982;
Pickens, 1983).
Performance funding is the only quality initiative into which
accountability is fully integrated. Programs that provide funds for
centers or special projects seek accountability through careful initial
allocation of funds, and they may include an evaluation process for
continuance. However, once such projects are established, they are
rarely discontinued on the basis of evaluation. In performance fund-
ing, institutions do not receive funds until they have demonstrated suc-cess. Thus, performance funding is the most effective system for link-
ing funds to outcomes.
Tennessee is the only state to have implemented performance
funding. Tennessee’s Performance Funding Project began in 1979 after
several years of privately funded pilot studies in which about half of the
state’s public institutions of higher education took part to develop
appropriate measures of effectiveness. Initially, an institution could
obtain up to 2 percent of its budget for meeting the program criteria. In
1984, the project was renamed the Instructional Evaluation Program,and the size of the award was increased to 5 percent. The program has
been integrated into the state’s budgeting formula.
A shift in name from performance funding to instructional eval-
uation embodies the key difficulty in implementing performance fund-
ing systems. In spite of the professed goals of personal achievement,
career preparation, community service, and advancement of know-
ledge, few American colleges and universities have well-developed
evaluation systems to measure their effectiveness in achieving such
goals. Before Tennessee could begin to reward effective instruction,sophisticated systems of assessment had to be established for each insti-
tution. Thus, for the first four years of performance funding, points
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were awarded for the development of systematic assessment proced-
ures; with the fifth year of implementation, the majority of funds was
awarded for demonstrated improvement in instructional effectiveness
or for achievement records superior to those of peer institutions.The built-in accountability of performance funding was attrac-
tive to Tennessee state legislators, who also responded well to the focus
on achievement, a core mission of colleges and universities. The Ten-
nessee plan contains rewards for students’ performance on general and
subject exams, performance on licensing exams, and job placement
records as well as accreditation of specific professional programs.
The plan was developed by the Tennessee Higher Education
Commission and supported by institutional interests who felt that tying
funds to an accountability process would be the only effective strategyfor obtaining more resources for higher education. Tennessee is a poor
state, and it was not fully funding its higher education formula in 1979;
during the period when performance funding was being adopted, the
formula was cut further. Integration of the incentive system into the
institutional budget, coupled with limited resources, created the suspi-
cion that institutions were trading some of their autonomy for old
resources in new bottles. Reluctance to accept funding tied to evalua-
tion without the assurance of new resources has limited consideration
of this approach in other states, most recently South Dakota. In Ten-nessee, institutions have accepted the view that funds would not simply
be added to the general distribution formula if performance funding
were eliminated. The cost of the resources is accountability for results.
One feature of performance funding that makes i t potentially
sustainable is its adaptability to diverse institutional missions. The
focus on instruction makes it central to all college and university mis-
sions, and particular measures and goals can be tailored to, or even
specified and negotiated by, individual institutions. In Tennessee,
institutions experimented with several approaches to assessment.These approaches were incorporated into the plan as it was imple-
mented, which helped to create a consensus about specific indicators of
success. In addition, there are alternative approaches that can be
chosen by different institutions. For example, vocational training pro-
grams can choose job placement as an indicator, while four-year col-
leges can choose measures of general educational attainment. The biggest
drawback noted by detractors is the cost and difficulty of measurement
and the possibility that only the easily measurable o r trivial will receive
attention, not the important outcomes of education.While many measures involve comparison with national sam-
ples or peer institutions and thus have some of the political drawbacks
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of quality comparison, the use of a value-added measure that examines
how much students have learned rather than their absolute level of
achievement allows all institutions to be rewarded for what they do
rather then for whom they enroll. Th e value-added approach to perfor-mance funding allows all institutions to aspire to quality recognition,
and it thus helps to sustain long-term support for this approach to edu-
cational improvement.
In Tennessee, the fact that all institutions scored near the maxi-
mum number of points at the end of five years caused some legislators
to question the rigor of standards of measurement and their effect on
institutional behavior. The involvement of institutions in the long pro-
cess of developing outcome measures helped to create a consensus that
forestalled resistance to implementation. The desire for consensus alsoencouraged maximum incentives for efforts to establish procedures.
These incentives have been effective in shaping institutional assess-
ment activities; all colleges and universities now gather evidence of
instructional effectiveness.
One of the assumptions behind performance incentives is that
the focus on particular outcomes will cause institutional leaders to con-
centrate on programmatic improvements that will help the institution
to attain these outcomes. Whether this emphasis on the instructional
mission, coupled with rewards for success, has affected efforts toimprove the instructional program is less clear. Trudy W . Banta and
Homer S . Fisher address that issue in Chapter Two of this volume.
Targeted Funding for Ins titutiona l& Selected Go als. Centers of
Excellence plans provide additional resources to strengthen carefully
identified programs within institutions. Whereas performance funding
rests on the assumption that quality can be improved if attention is
focused on expected outcomes, the Centers of Excellence concept
assumes that quality improvement requires increased investment. By
encouraging the institution to identify its particular strengths an d pri-orities, the concept allows resources to be concentrated on raising par-
ticular programs to national or regional prominence. A Centers plan
can include a requirement for the institution to raise matching funds,
which can influence selection of a n area of concentration with a strong
external constituency. Continuation of funding for particular centers
can be made contingent on the achievement of quality-related goals,
but no state has yet enforced such a contingency (Eyler, forthcoming).
The Centers of Excellence concept has some characteristics that
make it attractive to decision makers, but there are also some intrinsicproblems that go to the heart of the political conflict engendered by
attempts to target funds for quality improvement. Centers may be easier
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to adopt than to sustain in anything like their initial form. Tennessee’s
newly adopted Centers of Excellence plan illustrates some of these
political advantages and disadvantages. The plan was adopted as part
of the governor’s education reform bill, the Better Schools Plan, whichincluded a controversial career ladder pay plan for public school teach-
ers. Higher education benefited from the political emphasis being
given to quality in public schools. A coalition of interests was created
sufficient to pass a significant tax increase to fund educational improve-
ment.
Higher education interests became a significant element of the
coalition needed to pass the Better Schools Plan as a result of opposi-
tion from the Tennessee Education Association, which took issue with
the career ladder plan and evaluation of school teachers. By tying addi-tional postsecondary funding to the public school plan, political leaders
assured that higher education interests would lobby for the bill. The
Centers of Excellence plan also has particular appeal to groups con-
cerned with development of technology-based industries, which pressed
for its passage and which are expected to continue to support the con-
cept. The largest allocation made in the first year of the program was
$ 3 . 5 million to the Science Alliance, which formalized a relationship
between the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the Oak Ridge
National Laboratory. The next two largest allocations concerned laserapplications and manufacturing technology.
The centers approach creates a moderately visible program with
limited funding. Th e moderate price tag and the assurance that funds
are targeted for specific quality improvements makes i t attractive to
legislators. In Tennessee, the opportunity for a significant increase in
overall funding gained the support of most institutions. The $10 mil-
lion allocated for the first year established fourteen separate centers;
more are anticipated during the second year of implementation.
The visibility of the centers was a key factor in the decision ofthe University of Tennessee and the State Board of Regents to support
the plan in preference to endowment of chairs, which had been an ini-
tial suggestion of the Higher Education Commission. Chair endow-
ments had two advantages: They needed only the initial investment to
be sustained indefinitely, and they could be distributed among all insti-
tutions, Institutional boards felt that the Centers concept had more politi-
cal appeal; placing funds in an endowment would not generate the same
enthusiasm and support as a plan that would allow immediate expendi-
tures and establish projects and programs. If centers were sustained,institutions would have significantly more resources under that plan.
The major threat to maintenance of the Centers of Excellence
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plan over time is the conflict between the goals articulated for individ-
ual centers and the central missions of most colleges and universities.
The centers focus on goals consistent with strong graduate and profes-
sional programs and on research and development. Most of the institu-tions under the Tennessee State Board of Regents as well as two of the
four University of Tennessee campuses are devoted primarily to under-
graduate instructional service to mostly local students. Although they
may successfully compete for centers-most have received some Cen-
ters of Excellence support in the first year of implementation -most of
these institutions do not believe graduate-oriented centers are the best
way of spending additional higher education resources.
Some legislators and institutional representatives have suggested
that new funds could best be spent on efforts to improve undergraduate
instruction. Increasing access to higher education by funding institu-
tional growth has also been stressed. During the process of adoption of
the centers legislation, an amendment to require one third of funds to be
spent to enhance undergraduate instruction was added, and explicit
questions were asked about the trade-off between funding for centers
and support for additional students. Resistance to the targeting of cen-
ters funds from some institutions and their legislative representatives
may decrease as these institutions receive what they consider a fair
share of the resources, but the issue is not yet resolved, and it is expectedto reemerge when the program is refunded (Eyler, 1983).Responses to these concerns have been designed to assure all
institutions of their opportunity to share in the resources; they have not
modified the focus on creating centers that can achieve distinction and
meet strict accountability standards for continuance. The demand for
inclusion of undergraduates was met by institutional assurances that
current centers would serve also to strengthen undergraduate pro-
grams. The criteria for selection of centers for the second year’s compe-
tition were modified slightly at the request of the Board of Regents to
allow model instructional programs to compete. Selection still focuses
on graduate and research programs and on achieving regional visibil-
ity, and programs designed simply to improve some aspect of the
instructional program are not eligible. The Tennessee Higher Educa-
tion Commission has devoted considerable effort to working with insti-
tutions to establish standards that centers will have to meet in order to
win support for continuance. It will be interesting to see whether these
systems of accountability can be sustained over time.
The types of conflicts noted in Tennessee create pressures for
more equitable distribution of quality funds or for the creation of alter-
native programs that address the needs of all institutions. In Florida,
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where a similar plan established nine Centers of Distinction in 1974,
these pressures have gradually altered the program. The plan initially
funded a center at each four-year institution. Over time, the plan
changed, first to include several centers at each institution; then to pro-vide lump sums for each institution, which was required to devote
some attention to the undergraduate program; and finally to earmark
part of the funds for engineering and other technological programs
(Folger and Smartt, forthcoming).
Small Grunts o r Innovation. Competitive grant programs mod-
eled on the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education and
similar federal categorical programs provide seed money that allows
institutions to undertake development of quality enhancement pro-
grams (Eyler, forthcoming). Grant programs can be established atmoderate cost. They require only enough funding to ensure that indi-
vidual awards can be substantial enough and the proportion of success-
ful proposals high enough that institutions will make the investment
necessary to compete. Tying funds to a competitive process meets the
need of legislators to justify additional resources with quality assurances.
The add-on feature of grant programs makes them easy to
adopt and implement, but it makes them vulnerable to elimination.
They are less likely to build a constituency within an institution or
within the broader political environment than a specialized center thatbecomes an integral part of the enterprise. One of their strengths is the
extent to which such programs can be adapted to the priorities of indi-
vidual institutions. While the funding itself is not integral to the institu-
tional budget, the activities developed may be central to the
institution’s mission, which enhances the likelihood that the program
will be sustained over time. Unlike most quality initiatives, the com-
petitive grant approach provides direct incentives to faculty and
departments within institutions- special strength when instructional
improvement is the goal.Virginia established its Fund for Excellence in 1980 with $1.7 mil-
lion for the first biennium. The next two appropriations were for $2.5
million each. About a quarter of the proposals received have been funded.
Grants range between $6,000 and $387,000. Institutions have been very
supportive of the program. Part of the support stems from the institu-
tion’s ability to advance it s own priorities. Grants have been diverse, sup-
porting projects to encourage better student writing, cooperative educa-
tion efforts with local industry, computer training, and programs in the
arts and humanities. Attempts to put most of the funds into the state’spriority areas of engineering and high technology have been resisted by
the State Council of Higher Education, which initiated the program.
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The wide distribution of resources among institutions also cre-
ates a base of continuing support. Eariy concern that community col-
leges were not competing effectively for a share of the resources has
been overcome by providing technical assistance for the preparation ofmore effective proposals. Community colleges are now submitting suc-
cessful proposals. Nine of the twenty-three projects funded for the
1984-86 biennium came from community colleges.
Evaluation is primarily directed at proposals, and judgments
are made before funds are awarded. There is no systematic evaluation
system to assure that projects achieve their stated goals of enhancing
quality. The widespread popularity of the program with legislators and
institutions has meant that there has been no demand for comprehen-
sive evaluation of impact.Targeted Funding f o r State-Selected Goals. The most popular
quality initiative in higher education, adopted by more than a dozen
states, is the concentration of funds on programs specifically identified
as state priorities. Many such programs create centers or consortia,
some fund discrete research projects, but most are tied to scientific
research or technological development deemed important to growth of
the state economy and, to a lesser extent, to preparation of students for
careers in technology (Spraggins, 1983).
These programs share the political advantage of other centersand grant programs by allowing a relatively small amount of money to
be spent on valued and visible programs. However, their political
strength stems from their relationship to clear goals shared by political
actors outside the higher education policy subsystems. I n many states,
political leaders have created commissions to promote economic devel-
opment. Programs that strengthen the research capacity of universities
and that link academic research to the research and development
efforts of private industry are popular with legislators, labor and indus-
try, and local interests as well as with the institutions that receive addedresources. The requirement of most plans for matching funds to estab-
lish a center gives the higher education community a strong incentive
for supporting the plan, and it reinforces the importance of the endeavor
to groups outside higher education that help to pay for it. Once
established, such centers have a powerful constituency to advance their
interests. There are strong pressures for the center or program to
become part of the institution’s core budget. The strong external consti-
tuency insulates such centers from the pressure to distribute resources
more evenly across all institutions of higher education.
Pennsylvania’s Ben Franklin Partnership is one of the more
ambitious efforts to bring together academic, government, and private
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71
resources to stimulate research, development, and training in advanced
technology. First funded by the General Assembly in 1982 with $1 mil-
lion, $10 million was allocated in 1983-84. The Partnership is gov-
erned by a board that includes representatives from industry, business,education, labor, and the legislature. The major grants have funded
four regional advanced technology centers. These centers are run by
consortia led by universities that include other colleges and universi-
ties; industrial, labor, and financial organizations; and economic
development groups. During the 1983-84 year, $10 million in state
funds has been matched by $28 million from consortia members,
including more than $16 million from the private sector.
The Pennsylvania centers provide joint research and develop-
ment in such areas as robotics and biotechnology, program developmentassistance to help institutions of higher education provide training in
skills necessary to new industries, and entrepreneurial assistance.
Conclusion
The end of growth and the achievement of broad access to
higher education, combined with concern about economic stagnation
and lack of confidence in institutional effectiveness in general and edu-
cational effectiveness in particular, have led to an emphasis by policymakers on accountability and program effectiveness in higher educa-
tion. This has resulted in a proliferation of state initiatives designed to
enhance higher education quality. State initiatives have included raising
institutional admissions standards, creating competitive grant pro-
grams to fund institutional initiatives, rewarding demonstrated
instructional effectiveness, and targeting special funding on institution-
ally defined or state-defined research or program development priori-
ties. The critical issue for higher education reform in the 1980s will be
the extent to which quality initiatives can be implemented that have aneffect on institutional quality and that can be sustained politically over
time.
For initiatives designed to improve higher education quality to
be sustained over time, attention must be paid to their political as well
as to their substantive rationality. Such programs must lead to demon-
strable successes as well as be responsive to the need for diverse institu-
tions to share in the rewards for success.
Part of the key to continued political support will be found in
the characteristics of the initiatives themselves. Programs that allowinstitutions with diverse missions to participate can gain widespread
institutional support. Special grant programs such as the Virginia
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Fund for Excellence are popular for this reason. Such programs may be
more sustainable if they can become more fully integrated into institu-
tional budgets. This has been the case with Florida’s program that tar-
gets special resources for institutionally identified goals, and with theTennessee Instructional Evaluation Program. Programs that provide
faculty and depar tments with incentives to participate in quality
improvement efforts may enhance the likelihood of improved instruc-
tion as well as wide support. This has been a feature primarily of special
grant programs. Quality initiatives that serve important state goals,
such as economic development or improved student learning, may
garner needed long-term support outside the immediate higher education
political subsystem. The dramatic proliferation of state programs that
provide resources to research and development centers and consortiawith business and industry attest to the political appeal of efforts to
harness university research resources to enhance economic development.
The political environment in which higher education policy
decisions are made will also affect the extent to which higher education
quality will remain on the active policy agenda. The economy is likely
to continue to pose problems for policy makers. T o the extent that
political leaders continue to see a link between research, development,
and training in higher education and economic growth, interest in pro-
grams designed to provide resources that can improve educationalquality is likely to continue, It is also likely that such efforts will con-
tinue to be watched for results.
Demands by policy makers for demonstrated results in student
learning are also likely to continue. Decision makers are increasingly
sophisticated about program effectiveness and less willing to assume in
the absence of evidence that institutions are doing a good job. This con-
tinued interest in measures of effectiveness will depend to some extent
on the development of measures that are reliable and convincing and
on the measurable successes of quality improvement programs. Con-tinued routine use of evaluation data and inclusion of requirements for
quality assessments in higher education policy making will maintain a
political environment that makes quality initiatives more likely to be
sustainable.
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Janet Eyler is assistant professor of education and associate dean of
George Peabody College, Vanderbilt University.