Agency: State Board of Regents

Line Item: Education Excellence

Function

Funding for Education Excellence was appropriated beginning in the 2011 General Session as one-time funding for several initiatives designated to address specific issues and improve the delivery of education in the State. The Governor's Education Excellence Commission has established the goal of having 66 percent of Utah adult citizens having earned a postsecondary degree or certificate by the year 2020.

For FY 2012, the Legislature approved a total of $5.5 million in one-time funding to include the following items:

• $1 million for Mission-Based Funding, in conjunction with S.B. 97, passed during the 2011 General Session;

• $250,000 for a Data Integration Project to determine future workforce needs as they relate to students in higher education courses. This project will utilize information form the USHE, UCAT, State Office of Education, and Department of Workforce Services;

• $550,000 to improve the UtahFutures.org website, to help students determine earlier the education al opportunities they would like to pursue;

• $750,000 for Economic Development projects, including existing projects at the University of Utah, Weber State University, and Utah Valley University; and new projects at Southern Utah University, Snow College Dixie State College, and Utah State University - College of Eastern Utah;

• $2,435,700 for the development of six new technology-intensive, concurrent enrollment courses that will fulfill general education requirements and include state achievement assessment of learning outcomes. These courses include: Introduction to Visual Arts, Introduction to Writing, Elementary Chemistry, Intermediate Algebra, Quantitative Reasoning, and Introduction to Psychology. These courses will be available for students in the Fall of 2012; and

• $500,000 for the Utah Business Education Support Trust which will be a website to engage education with businesses.

For FY 2013, the Legislature approved a total of $1.6 million in one-time funding to include the following items:

• $1,000,000 for the continued development of new technology-intensive, concurrent enrollment courses that will fulfill general education requirements. These courses will be available for students in the Fall of 2013;

• $500,000 to develop and implement an online assessment tool to assess the readiness of high school students for post-secondary education and provide individualized adaptive instruction to students who are identified by the assessment tool as needing remediation to be successful in college; and

• $100,000 to support the Women's College Task Force and assist it in increasing the number if women enrolling in, and completing post-secondary education.

For FY 2014, the Legislature approved a total of $1.65 million in one-time funding to include the following items:

• $1,000,00 for Performance Based Funding that supports efforts to increase completions to reach the goal of 66 percent of the adult population having some form of post-secondary education credential by the year 2020. Specific measures include: a) 1st to 2nd year retention, b) Increased completion rates. C) Acceleration in fulfilling the general education math requirement. D) Increase in graduate education. E) Transition from developmental math to successful completion of college math course. ;

• $600,000 for the development of new technology intensive concurrent enrollment courses that will fulfill general education requirements and include state achievement assessment of learning outcomes; and

• $50,000 to support the Utah Women and Education Initiative to assist in increasing the number of women attending and completing a higher education.

Intent Language

The Legislature intends that the Utah State Board of Regents develop standards to measure institutions' performances using, but not limited to the following: 1. Retention (1st year to 2nd year); 2. Completion rates (including transfers); 3. Reduction in remedial/developmental math courses; 4. Successful completion of math courses following remedial/developmental; 5. Acceleration in fulfilling general education math courses; 6. Increase in graduate education (as applicable by institutional mission).

The Legislature further intends that the $1 million Performance-Based funding will be allocated by the Utah State Board of Regents to institutions that show improvements in one or more of these areas.

At the State Board of Regents' May 2013 meeting, it approved guidelines for the Performance Funding that emphasize completion. These include:

• 1st year to 2nd year retention
• Increased completion rate (transfer counts toward completion)
• Acceleration in fulfilling general education math requirements
• Increase in graduate education
• Transition from developmental math to successful completion of college math course.

Institutions were able to select the performance measures they would emphasize. The following measures were selected and prioritized by the institutions:

• University of Utah - Retention, Completion, Accelerate GE Math Requirement, and Increase graduate education
• Utah State University - Accelerate GE Math Requirement
• Weber State University - Completion, Retention, and Accelerate GE Math
• Southern Utah University - Retention, Completion, and Accelerate GE Math Requirement
• Utah Valley University - Retention, Completion, and Accelerate GE Math Requirement
• Dixie State University - Accelerate GE Math Requirement
• Snow College - Accelerate GE Math Requirement and Transition from developmental math to successful completion of college math class
• Salt Lake Community College - Transition from developmental math to successful completion of college math class

Successful completion of performance measures will result in a maximum award of the following:

• University of Utah and Utah State University - $200,000 each
• Weber State University, Utah Valley University, and Salt Lake Community College - $120,000 each
• Southern Utah University, Dixie State University, and Snow College - $80,000 each

Performance

The Board of Regents identified 11 Utah Cluster Acceleration Partnership (UCAP) projects that progressed utilizing some of the one-time funding provided in this line item. These include:

1. Aerospace
2. Energy
3. Digital Media
4. Life Sciences
5. Health Care
6. USU-E
7. Dixie
8. SUU
9. Snow
10. China Business Development
11. Manufacturing

In addition, the Board of Regents had worked on the implementation of the alignment between education and economic engagement in the following areas:

1. Digital Media
2. Snow Regional Engagement Strategy
3. USU-E Regional Engagement Strategy
4. USU-E Phase 3 Strategy
5. SUU Phase 3 Strategy
6. Dixie Regional Engagement Strategy
7. Dixie Phase 3 Strategy
8. Life Science Cluster Acceleration Strategy

The following General Education courses were developed and piloted Fall 2012 Semester:

1. Math 1010
2. Art 1010
3. Chemistry 1110
4. English 1010
5. Math 1030
6. Psychology 1010

Additional courses planned for Fall 2013 Semester include:

1. Medical Terminology
2. Political Science 1100
3. Music 1010
4. Humanities 1010
5. Drafting
6. Math 1050/1060

Funding Detail

For more detail about a particular source of finance or organizational unit, click a linked entry in the left column of the table(s) below.