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Institution-Set Standards

Federal regulations under the Higher Education Opportunities Act of 2008, along with accreditation requirements from the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) (Standard 1: Institutional Mission and Effectiveness, 2024), require all higher education institutions establish institution-set standards (ISS) for student achievement. Institutions must evaluate their performance against these standards and set improvement goals when results fall short.

Institution-set standards must be established for several key areas of student success. These include course success rates, certificate completion, degree completion, transfer counts, licensure exam pass rates (for those programs for which students must pass a licensure exam to work in their field of study), and employment rates for students completing certificate programs and Career Technical Education (CTE) degrees.

Institution-set standards represent the minimum acceptable level of performance, internally determined by the institution, to ensure educational quality and institutional effectiveness. These standards serve as baseline performance thresholds that the institution strives to maintain and does not intend to fall below. In addition to these minimum thresholds, the college also sets aspirational targets, often referred to as stretch goals, to support continuous improvement.

The standards also require institutions to establish standards at both the institutional and programmatic levels and to communicate results broadly across the institution to foster a shared understanding of strengths and areas needing improvement.

Goal Setting Methodology

In 2025, Cerritos College developed and adopted a consistent, college-wide methodology for calculating the institution-set standards. The institution-set standards for each student achievement metric are determined using a three-year average, excluding the current year. A 95% confidence interval is then calculated based on this average. The lower bound of the confidence interval is designated as the institution-set standard (baseline), while the upper bound becomes the college’s stretch goal or aspirational target. Exceptions to this approach include licensure pass rates, where academic departments set their own benchmarks, and course success rates, where the statewide average is used as the baseline. Per ACCJC requirements, each institution must declare, monitor, and discuss these standards annually, and report them in the ACCJC Annual Report submitted each spring semester.

Institution-Set Standards Annual Process

1. The Office of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, Planning, and Grants (IERPG) creates the annual institutional-set standards each spring semester (~April, after submission of the ACCJC Annual Report).
2. IERPG presents to the institution-set standards to the Planning and Budget Committee for review and discussion.
3. The finalized results are posted publicly on IERPG’s institution-set standards webpage for institutional transparency.
4. If any department’s performance falls below the institution-set standard for course success rates, licensure pass rates, or job placement rates, actions plans are developed and integrated into the annual unit planning process.
5. After reviewing these action plans, IERPG shares summaries with the Planning and Budget Committee for further discussion and tracking.

• Fall Course Success Rates
• Academic Outcomes
• Licensing Pass Rates
• Employment Rates

* Course Success Aspirational Goal uses the statewide average
* ISS Standard is set by using taking the average of the last three years (not including the most recent) and subtracting the 95% confidence interval from it.
* ISS Aspirational Goal is set by using taking the average of the last three years (not including the most recent) and adding the 95% confidence interval from it.
* The yellow highlight means there were less than 10 observations