Assessing our Progress on The Strategic Plan

Measuring Our Progress

In order to measure our progress towards meeting our strategic goals, and more importantly, our promise to students, SUNY Delhi has engaged in formalized assessment of the Strategic Plan since 2018.  

The Strategic Planning process at SUNY Delhi complies with Middle States Standard I: "The institution’s mission defines its purpose within the context of higher education, the students it serves, and what it intends to accomplish. The institution’s stated goals are clearly linked to its mission and specify how the institution fulfills its mission." The assessment of the Strategic Plan guides faculty, administration, staff, and governing structures in making decisions related to planning, resource allocation, program and curricular development, and the definition of institutional and educational outcomes.

Strategic Plan Assessment by Theme

Assessment Report Card

The Annual Report Card 2019-2020 (pdf) provides a snapshot of how SUNY Delhi carries out its mission: “Focusing on grit and determination, SUNY Delhi engages its inclusive community through hands-on teaching and learning”.

Assessment Methodology

Methodology, Cycle 1: 2018-2021

• SUNY Delhi Strategic Plan Development: June 2017-December 2018
• SUNY Delhi Assessment Program was finalized January 2019 – All campus units mapped unit goals to the Strategic Plan.
• Within assessment software, a report provided all unit goals and associated data, mapped to each Strategic Theme (10,796 rows of data!)
• Strategic Plan Assessment Workgroup was assembled Summer 2019.
• Subcommittees were developed within the Workgroup for each Theme; data sifted, culled, and made sense of within each subcommittee.
• Ran WordClouds on each Theme; frequencies of certain words were calculated; text and thematic analysis were performed.
• Workgroup reviewed living data, benchmarked with common Higher Education KPIs, and developed list of Measures (KPIs) per Theme.
• Actionable Outcomes, based on connections, measures, and data from unit self-identification of where they fit into the Strategic Plan, were devised; an organic and bottom-up approach.
• Workgroup Chair and members, Leadership Team, Director of IR/IE, and Faculty Assessment Coordinator reviewed and finalized final Outcomes and Measures.
• Measures reported in Report Card were selected strategically in Summer 2020 and are not all-encompassing of campus activities/measures.
• In Fall 2020, the Leadership engaged in data-informed discussion surrounding each theme, identifying action plans (“Look Aheads”) for each strategic area; spring and summer updates and discussion occurred.

Methodology, Cycle 2: 2021-2024

• Expanding Direct Assessment of the Strategic Plan
  • Divisional Units to incorporate Strategic Themes and Outcomes into assessment plans
  • Measurable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), in addition to unit mappings
  • Collaborative Benchmarking process
• Visualizing the Progress of Strategic Plan
  • Each strategic theme and outcome have at least one KPI to be annually reported and assessed.
  • A 4-point scale was developed to score progress on each KPI, progress on Fall 2020 Look Aheads, and overall theme scores.
    • 1 = Initiating: Just getting off the ground OR plans to begin the work are in place.
    • 2 = Developing: Early progress is being made.
    • 3 = Improving: The work is well underway, deliverables are imminent or occurring, action is ongoing.
    • 4 = Approaching Goal: Meeting objectives of the work/initiative, maintenance of effort if occurring.
  • Average Score of KPIs and Look Aheads become the final “score” of the theme; re-assessed and updated annually, each summer.
  • Scores are represented visually via a dial; we aim to continue moving the needle towards “approaching.”