Linking Classroom Performance to the Institutional Mission Statement

A higher education institution’s mission statement shouldcommunicate its purpose and goals to both internal and external stakeholders. Unlessthere is a means of assessing the statement’s efficacy, it is little more than a vacuouspublic relations contrivance. Most teaching institutions’ mission statements directly orindirectly speak to student learning. Focusing on business schools, a literature reviewfound little evidence of mission statement influence at the individual course level.Studies assessing the linkage between individual courses and the school’s missionstatement are few. More comprehensive studies assessing the linkage from assemblages ofmultiple-section courses, majors, and programs could not be located in the availableliterature. This article presents a unique and cost-effective mathematical model thatcan be used to link aggregated student performance in individual courses to theinstitutional mission statement. Its utility permits the aggregation and disaggregationof data facilitating comparisons and contrasts performance within and across majors,required and elective, and general education within a curriculum in relation to theinstitution’s mission statement. Furthermore, the model could be used to isolate andcompare and contrast targeted subgroups by class standing, faculty rank, experience, andfull- or part-time status