Montana Score Card

Montana has mid-level educational attainment. While it has a relatively high floor (it ranks second and eighth, respectively, in the percentage of adults with only an eighth-grade education and in those with some high school but no diploma), its only high positive ranking (fifth) comes from adults with some college but no degree. Montana's 2006 per capita income was almost $6,000 less than the national average, and its poverty rate was 13.7 percent, which was higher than the national average of 12.5. The state is expected to have one of the largest declines in high school graduates in the country in coming years.

Montana's higher education accountability system's strengths are:

• Separating data by important socioeconomic factors (race/ethnicity, gender, income, first-generation status, transfer students, etc.).
• Comparing data across time and/or against peers.

Montana's higher education accountability system needs work in:

• Aligning state priorities with concrete goals for achievement.
• Formally linking budgetary decisions to the performance of state postsecondary institutions.
• Proactively informing prospective students, parents, and the general public about the performance of state colleges and universities.