44 colleges and universities in 22 states partner with CSO Research Inc. to set a national standard for collecting career outcomes data on college graduates

For the first time, American colleges and universities have a valid, reliable and nationally-standardized method for finding out what their students are doing after graduation.

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CSO Research Inc.

May 09, 2014, 07:00 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, May 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time, American colleges and universities have a valid, reliable and nationally-standardized method for finding out what their students are doing after graduation.

The Outcomes Survey - powered by CSO Research, Inc. - is a turn-key first destination survey system being used by 44 colleges and universities in 22 states to collect career outcomes data on their spring 2014 graduates; career outcomes data they can use for accreditation, admissions recruiting, career advising and federal reporting.

"The data collected from The Outcomes Survey is invaluable to the institution and prepares us to meet new reporting standards," said Matt Cardin, Director of Career Services for St. John Fisher College in Rochester NY, one of 16 schools that have made a three year commitment to using The Outcomes Survey. "Post-graduation outcomes are critical and are more important than ever before. We are excited to be part of this initiative."

The Outcomes Survey's 16 partner schools include: University of North Texas; Virginia Commonwealth University; Rider University (New Jersey); Concordia University Texas; East Central University (Oklahoma); Harding University (Arkansas); Huston-Tillotson University (Texas); Metropolitan State University Denver (Colorado); Midwestern State University (Texas); Montana Tech; Ohio Dominican University; Roger Williams University (Rhode Island); Saint Martin's University (Washington); St. John Fisher College (New York); St. Mary's University (Texas); and Wisconsin Lutheran College. Twenty-eight additional schools have signed on in the last two months.

"The Outcomes Survey was designed to meet existing reporting standards and address the emerging federal reporting requirements," said Matt Berndt - CSO's Vice President. "We have 44 schools onboard and expect to have more than 100 using The Outcomes Survey when the new IPEDS reporting year begins on July 1. Already, more than 40,000 new graduates nationwide will take The Outcomes Survey in 2014. CSO is partnering with some very forward-thinking institutions to establish a national standard for career outcomes data collection."

The Outcomes Survey enables schools to gather data on graduates' career outcomes, their level of engagement in the process of seeking a first destination after college, the impact of experiential education on their career outcomes, their satisfaction with their first destination, and their personal and professional motivation in pursuing a career. In addition to these nationally standardized question sets, schools can ask custom questions unique to their campus.

Schools using The Outcomes Survey have real-time access to all of their data via an administrator dashboard; get pre-formatted campus-level reports at graduation, three-months, six-months and one year; and get aggregate national reports at six months and one year. Deeper reporting functionality is on the drawing board.

"The usefulness of the interface and reporting abilities has greatly helped us as we have implemented strategies to improve our response rate from previous survey attempts," said Ray Rogers, Director of Career Services for Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.

The Outcomes Survey was designed to meet prevailing standards for institutional research, and has been approved by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) at multiple institutions. Said Max Wartel, CSO's Head of Research and Analysis: "The Outcomes Survey is an extension of campus-level institutional research. As such, we want everyone from campus presidents and accrediting boards to prospective students and public policy makers to have confidence in the validity, reliability and usefulness of the data. Our goal is to become the standard by which all other outcomes data collection is measured."

"First destination career outcomes data is just the tip of the iceberg," said CSO President Kevin Wilson. "Schools need data on their graduates five, ten and twenty years after they graduate, and very soon they will be able to use The Outcomes Survey to gather that data, as well."

CSO Research, Inc. will be sharing information on The Outcomes Survey at the 2014 CSO User Training and Networking Conference in Austin TX from May 20-23, the Eastern Association of Colleges and Employers (EACE) 2014 Annual Conference in Annapolis MD from May 27-30, the Association of Institutional Researchers 2014 AIR Forum in Orlando FL from May 27-30, and the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) 2014 Annual Conference and Expo in San Antonio from June 8-11.