The focus of the discussion of this meeting was to determine the "What to Measure" for the seven clusters that were determined at the previous meetings for the bench marking charge of COBS. The seven clusters as previously set are:

1. hospitality management

2. appearance enhancement

3. computer technology

4. ESL

5. business

6. technical trades

7. allied health

WHAT TO MEASURE

After much discussion, the group decided that it would be best to divide the measures into mandatory measures and optional areas that would best apply to each cluster or peer group. All schools in each of the clusters would need to complete the mandatory measures in order to participate in this bench marking initiative.

It was further discussed and agreed that the measures, the definitions, and the formulas to determine the measures would have to be user friendly and easy to comprehend so that the bench marking measures would be useful to the majority of our customers, i. e. students, parents, high school guidance counselors, etc.

After discussing the meaning of retention rates, placement rates, and graduation rates, COBS developed the following mandatory measures:

1. SUCCESS RATE defined as the percentage of the student body who completed their enrolled program or are continuing the program for the period being measured.

This measure is to be calculated using the agreed upon formula:

Success Rate = (continuing + new students) - drops
                                       continuing + new students

[drops include withdrawals and terminated students]
[the period being measured is from July 1 to June 30 of the following year]

2. PLACEMENT RATE defined as the percentage of students who completed their programs during the period being measured who are employed utilizing the skills gained from the educational program.

The measure is to be calculated using the following formula:

Placement Rate = grads employed using acquired skills
                             all grads/completers - unavailable students

[the period to be measure will be July 1 to June 30 of the following year]

It was agreed that the individual clusters or peer groups of schools will need to meet to determine what other measures should be included for their group and what would be important for their customers to consider for their area of training. Some ideas include student/instructor ratios, average class size, graduate satisfaction rates, faculty retention rates, passing rates on standardized professional examinations, etc.

These concepts will be presented by COBS for approval to the Advisory Council at the next full meeting of the NYS Proprietary School Advisory Council.