The Renaissance of Performance Funding for Higher Education: Policy Adoption, Implementation, and Impacts

Abstract

This dissertation examines performance funding for higher education, an increasingly prevalent state policy that allocates funding to public colleges and universities based on student outcomes. In three distinct studies with individual datasets and a mixed-methods approach, this dissertation first uncovers whether policy diffusion mechanisms, political influences, and philanthropic foundation involvement contribute to the spread of performance funding. Policy redesign and micro-level campus practices are investigated, with focus on faculty incentives and data usage to improve retention of underrepresented students and in the STEM fields. Lastly, special incentives for greater STEM degree completion are analyzed to determine whether on a macro-level, STEM degrees have increased as a result of performance funding. This dissertation additionally offers implications for policy and practice regarding the role of performance funding in advancing the national college completion agenda.