Voluntary System of Accountability

The Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) is a joint initiative between the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (A·P·L·U). VSA provides a common way for AASCU and A·P·L·U member institutions to report educational outcomes and demonstrate accountability to the public. It also enables prospective students and their parents to directly compare specific information between colleges, such as student achievement, via the Web.

Using a reporting template, called College Portrait, VSA participants submit common data elements. The Clearinghouse has created a VSA cohort query for its educational research service, StudentTracker, which provides institutions with a summary enrollment and retention table. Institutions that participate in the Clearinghouse’s Core, DegreeVerify and StudentTracker can use the StudentTracker VSA query to create the “Undergraduate Success & Progress Rate" table for their VSA College Portrait. StudentTracker participants can also use the VSA query to obtain graduation and retention outcomes, including transfer behavior.

The query returns graduation and retention counts as follows:

• Students who were retained or graduated from the submitting institution
• Students who were retained or graduated from an external institution
• Results are broken down by two- and four-year schools
• Four- to six-year outlook is also provided

For more information

• Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA)
• StudentTracker service
• StudentTracker VSA Query