Student Achievement Measures Disclosure

Virginia Tech Student Achievement Measures

Virginia Tech is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC). In June 2014, the SACSCOC Board of Trustees approved a policy statement on “Institutional Obligations for Public Disclosure.” The policy requires that an institution accredited by SACSCOC publish “statements of its goals for student achievement and the success of students in achieving those goals.” Virginia Tech has a strong history of evaluating the achievement of its students in relation to its mission. The university monitors achievement of students through the Institutional Performance Standards developed by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV), and through the university’s long-range strategic plan scorecard (under development).

Institutional Performance Standards

While the university monitors first-year retention rates and graduation rates (Table 1 and Table 2), no specific university-level targets have been set for those rates. Instead, the university has developed targets for degree awards at each student level (Table 2 and Table 3) as established in the Institutional Performance Standards. Retention and graduation rates are critically important in developing these targets. In concurrence with the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the university considers a threshold of 95% of the target to be acceptable performance.

Table 1 and Table 2. First-year retention rates and six-year graduation rates for first-time, full-time, first-year baccalaureate degree seeking students

Additional links to retention and graduation rates, in graphical and tabular form, are here:

• Retention & Graduation - University (Visual Format)
• Retention & Graduation - University (Tabular Format)
• Time-to-Degree

See the Institutional Performance Standards Review (PDF).