Evaluation of Student Achievement at the Institutional Level

As part of the Higher Education Reorganization Act of 1971, N.C. A&T became a constituent university of the University of North Carolina under one governing board. In 2014, the UNC Board of Governors (BOG) adopted both academic and non-academic metrics to ensure “continuous improvement in the consistency, efficiency and effectiveness of the operations of the University of North Carolina system, including the constituent institutions” (UNC Policy 1300.6). Of these metrics, the following are related to student success: 1) Four-year graduation rate, 2) Undergraduate Degree Efficiency, 3) First-Time Student Debt at Graduation (Nominal), and 4) Transfer Student Debt at Graduation (Nominal). Each constituent institution establishes annual performance goals (standard for success) for each metric. The UNC President reports annually to the BOG on the progress of each of the constituent institution's performance in comparison to its own goals and to the performance of selected peer institutions. The metrics for NC A&T are provided in Table 1.

In addition, the UNC BOG adopted the policy 400.1.5 “Fostering Undergraduate Student Success”, which requires each of the constituent campuses to establish a “student success and support structure” that will review and report on following areas:

• retention, academic progression, graduation, and time to degree,
• course scheduling for academic progression,
• course offerings and grade requirements that may inhibit graduation, and
• monitor academic advising to ensure time to degree.

Since implementation of this UNC policy, the university has revised several policies on academic standing, the number of withdrawals, and the course repetitions and grade forgiveness to help students’ progress in degree completion. Furthermore, the university has implemented an early alert warning system to help monitor students’ progress in order to improve retention and satisfactory degree progress that will ultimately improve student achievement. Each year the UNC BOG is presented a retention and graduation report. NCA&T's goal has been to improve these rates each year. As shown in Table 2, NC A&T has been steadily making improvements over the past several years.

The university also monitors student achievement with indirect measures via the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The following table (Table 3) shows results from the 2020 and 2024 NSSE and highlights the percentage of seniors responding “Very much” or “Quite a bit” to how much their experience at N.C. A&T contributed to their knowledge, skills, and personal development in 10 areas.

Evaluation of Student Achievement at the Program Level

As part of NCA&T's regular institutional effectiveness process, many academic departments assess program outcomes related to student achievement including enrollment and graduation and first-year retention rates. Program-specific data can be found on the university’s factbook webpage maintained by the Office of Strategic Planning and Institutional Effectiveness. Furthermore, several departments monitor student job placement rates, completion data, and licensure exam reports. Following are examples of the programs that use licensure exam reports.

Nursing – NCA&T’s School of Nursing and the UNC BOG monitor the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX)-RN pass rate of first-time writers (or test takers). This exam is used to license nurses in the United States and therefore provides a marker for preparing BSN nurses. The UNC Policy 400.1.7 establishes a goal of passing rate to be 90 percent or higher each year for first writing of licensure examination for calendar years ending December 31. If a campus fails to meet this goal for two consecutive years, the program must be evaluated in the areas of leadership, faculty, admissions policies, and curriculum.Education – The School of Education also monitors graduates' achievement in passing licensure exams. In particular, the State of North Carolina requires that candidates for licensure in Elementary Education and Special Education (General Curriculum) take Praxis II (prior to October 2014) or Pearson Foundations of Reading and General Curriculum tests (starting October 2014). Although performance goals are not established for this metric, the exam results are monitored carefully for professional accreditation and program improvement purposes.