Performance Measurement Reporting System

The Performance Measurement Reporting System (PMRS) is designed to fulfill the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education’s statutory obligation to “promote accountability for effective management and stewardship of public funds and to achieve and demonstrate measurable educational outcomes” (MGL, Chapter 15a, Section 7).

Updated annually each spring, PMRS provides a comprehensive examination of the performance of each of Massachusetts’ community colleges and state universities on a set of key indicators focused on Access & Affordability, Student Success & Completion, Workforce Alignment and Fiscal Stewardship with attention to equity gaps for underserved students wherever possible. This tool is intended to prompt constructive conversations about performance and accountability between and among DHE/BHE, the campuses, boards of trustees, legislators and others, and ultimately to contribute to the discovery of insights that point to actions that lead to results—and a better public higher education system for the Commonwealth. The metrics are foundational to assessment and accountability, having been incorporated into annual presidential evaluations, program evaluation, and campus- and system-level strategic planning, including the Strategic Plan for Racial Equity and Strategic Public Higher Education Financing.

The May 2019 launch of PMRS was the culmination of a multi-year review and overhaul of the tools used by DHE to report on institutional performance, involving presidents and their designees who served on the task force and numerous working groups to work through difficult questions about metrics and methodology while advancing the public higher education system’s focus on data-informed decision-making. The Board of Higher Education approved the new system in December 2018.

Institutional Performance Reports