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Educational Assessment
Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President

Setting Targets and Benchmarks

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Targets are goals a program has for itself: specifically, a target sets the percentage of students that should be meeting or exceeding the program’s learning outcomes for the program to fulfill its goals for student learning. A common target in the WASC region is for at least 75-80% of students to meet or exceed learning outcomes in a given program or other educational experience. [Suskie (2018) recommends that no target should ever be below 50%.]

Benchmarks (aka standards) are criteria for comparing results with an externally developed standard. For instance, the comparison of SCU’s results on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) survey are compared to results aggregated nationally and to peer institutions similar on key metrics. Also, the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) provides standards for 44 co-curricular areas in higher education. Using externally developed benchmarks such as these can provide external validation to an assessment. It’s important to note that benchmarking may be aiming for similarity with other institutions, aspirational, or even competitive with peer institutions. Alternatively, it can also be self referential (via comparisons to one’s program at different moments in time).

For an assessment using a rubric tool, faculty/staff might elect to use the same rubrics across multiple campuses with similar missions to assess a particular learning outcome or outcomes. This would allow for benchmarking comparisons beyond the institution. Programs within a single institution that share common learning outcomes can also employ this approach, allowing for an internal (to campus) validation.

Suskie (2018, p. 297) recommends that programs ask the following question as they development meaningful targets and benchmarks: 

  1. Ask what would not embarrass you? 
  2. Ask how will the assessment data be used (and by what audiences)? 
  3. Ask what are the relative risks of setting the bar too high or too low? 
  4. When in doubt, set the standard relatively high rather than relatively low 
  5. If you can, use external sources to help set standards (disciplinary organizations, professional licensing requirements, etc.) 
  6. Consider the assignment being assessed 
  7. Consider a sample of student work and past experience

Educational Assessment staff are happy to help develop targets and benchmarks for your program or provide feedback on your plans.