Office of Planning, Analysis & Accountability (OPAA)
Overview
The Office of Planning, Analysis and Accountability (OPAA) is responsible for complying with federal, State of Maryland and University System of Maryland reporting requirements and coordinates regional accreditation activities. OPAA leverages technology to support a data informed decision culture through surveying, environmental scanning, conducting targeted analyses and studies, and disseminating data through analytics, and dashboard tools, and reports. OPAA is staffed by the AVP for Institutional Effectiveness, the Director of Decision Support & Reporting, the Director of Institutional Surveys & Analysis, and the Senior Research Analyst of Decision Support & Visual Analytics. In addition, the AVP supervises University Testing Services. The office is located in the James E. Proctor, Jr. Building, Room 312 (within University Testing Services).
Email opaa@bowiestate.edu for information or requests.
Mission
The mission of OPAA is to provide decision support information to the campus community to promote continuous improvement and institutional effectiveness. OPAA integrates institutional and external data to inform student success strategies, resource allocation, enrollment management, and institutional strategic planning and performance.
Vision
OPAA serves to contextualize data and inform institutional decision making. The office aims to achieve this by maintaining objectivity, appropriately assessing user needs, sustaining data integrity, analyzing and interpreting data, and transforming data into information that supports the pillars of BSU's Strategic Plan.
Goals of OPAA
- Provide leadership in efforts to ensure accountability to college's stakeholders
- Direct institutional strategic planning activities
- Maintain and monitor institutional effectiveness indicators
- Support learning outcomes assessment
- Serve as a clearing house for appropriate institutional statistics
- Design and conduct research studies in support of policy decisions
- Administer surveys to appropriate populations
- Support market needs assessment for program development and grant opportunities
- Fulfill state and federal reporting requirements
Institutional Effectiveness Framework
Download the Institutional Effectiveness Framework document (pdf)