Strategic Plan Measures, Baseline Data, Benchmarks, and Targets

Benchmarks compare our current status on the strategic plan indicators to peer institutions and historical performance.

• Download Strategic Plan 2007-2011 Benchmarks and Targets
  (PDF, Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)

The Benchmarking Project creates common definitions of key terms by: a) establishing commonly agreed upon definitions of terms that allow valid comparisons; b) developing a comprehensive base of analysis that permits meaningful comparisons; and c) establishing a set of data that will inform the University in the current year and provide a baseline for longitudinal analysis in the years ahead.

Implementation of the strategic plan requires specific details needed to assess progress, such as baseline data on the indicators, benchmarks that compare our current status on the indicators to peer institutions and historical performance, and targets for progress on the indicators.

1. The numbers in the far left column reference the strategic plan numbers;
2. Indicators describe what we will look at to assess our progress on a strategic plan objective;
3. Measure or Document describes where we look to find indicators;
4. The first row of numbers is the "Benchmark", peer context or historical data depending on how you prefer to think about it. The attached Benchmarking project report explains what benchmarks are and how many of the SP benchmarks were computed;
5. 2006/2007 is the Gallaudet University 2006 or 2007 level of activity depending on what was readily available. 2006 data are reported in italics, so we can substitute more recent numbers as we collect them;
6. The final column is for targets to be met. Most of the suggested targets are at the historic average -- if current numbers are below -- or reflect a desire for some improvement;
7. Superscripted letters are an important part of the chart. It is simply not enough to put down a number. Each number requires some kind of explanation and that is what the superscripts are for. Consequently, we can have an infinite number of different explanations by simply adding more superscripts.