Understanding the alignment between the national report “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” and Purdue University's 2008–2014 “New Synergies” strategic plan
Abstract
The United States government charged the National Academies with the task of evaluating the global performance of the country on various criteria. Their conclusion was that the quality of the nation’s research institutions must be improved in order for the United States to remain as a front-runner among other advancing nations. Several recommendations were offered by the committee in order to help improve key areas, which included education and research. This study focused on understanding the alignment between the recommendations found in the national report Rising Above the Gathering Storm and Purdue University’s 2008-2014 strategic plan New Synergies. The study consisted of using a case study approach to determine how well recommendations and strategies aligned, as well as the relevance of each strategy to the recommendation. Through the use of a Likert based rubric, the researcher along with subject matter experts evaluated each strategy within the scope of the recommendation to determine how relevant it was to the recommendation. At the conclusion of the individual evaluations, averages of all scores were taken to find which strategies were among the most relevant. This was determined by an average score of four or five on the Likert scale. The study yielded that 11 recommendations were comparable to 73 strategies and that three primary recommendations were found to be most relevant among all three-research participants. National recommendations A-1, B-1, and C-1 were found to be the most pertinent. Among those overall recommendations, 23 strategies were found to be the most relevant. The study found that Purdue University was in fact meeting the needs of the government throughout its current strategic plan. By confirming the alignment of the university to the national recommendations formulated by the committees of the National Academies, the university can place itself in a position to qualify for more federal funding opportunities in the future, as well as, be considered a premier STEM school globally.
Degree
M.S.
Advisors
Dyrenfurth, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Educational evaluation|Education Policy|Higher education
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