Willard Hom, MBA

Willard Hom brought his decades of expertise to the California Community Colleges system and dedicated his talents to achievements in survey research, performance measurement/accountability, customer satisfaction, market research, and various public issues such as labor and higher education.

Willard's personal interests have long centered around improving policymaking and research practice in the public sector, especially state government. He received his Bachelor of Arts in political science from California State University, Sacramento, and his Master of Business Administration from University of California, Davis. For 12 years, he served as the Director of Research, Analysis, and Accountability for the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office (CCCCO). During the early days of the California Community Colleges system's accountability reporting, he created and implemented the Partnership for Excellence accountability framework, which included extensive field interaction and training.

In response to the Assembly Bill 1417 (Pacheco) legislation in 2004, Willard created the first cohort-based report examining transfer outcomes. He utilized a methodology for creating transfer rates that involved adjusting for K-12 test scores and establishing expected versus actual rates based on factors outside of the control of the institution. Current transfer outcomes reporting frameworks in the state still benefit from Willard's early work in this area.

Willard's contributions were pivotal in the next evolution of mandated accountability reporting. Working with his research team at the CCCCO and members of the accountability reporting advisory committee, Willard created the Student Success Scorecard, a set of student progress and success metrics to understand remedial instruction, job training programs, retention of students, and graduation and completion rates. The creation of the Scorecard advanced the work of accountability reporting by moving from simple volume counts to rates based on entering cohorts. Notably, for the Student Progress and Achievement Rate (SPAR), he implemented the use of course-taking behavior as a measure of intent, rather than a stated goal, when constructing student cohorts.

To address legislative interest, Willard and his research team at the CCCCO implemented a sophisticated model for creating peer groups, allowing colleges to compare their student outcomes with those of other colleges. The Scorecard's presentation allowed complex data to be shown in a way that was easy to understand, thus facilitating dialogue within our campus communities. Notably, for many years it was highlighted as best practice for measuring and monitoring outcomes by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges.

Additional research projects Willard was involved in include reporting on wage gain outcomes for non- completers, student inflow and outflow, construction and testing of a first-gen's question in a system-wide survey, and validation of community college transfers counts to the CSU and UC systems. Always a researcher, Willard served in his role with integrity and intellect. There was never a prompt or question on the RP Group listserv to which he could not respond. He also served as President of the California Association for Institutional Research (CAIR) for a number of years.

Throughout his career, Willard engaged with the local research community and welcomed participation and feedback. In doing so, he created a sense of commitment and collaboration for monitoring student outcomes across the system. Since Willard also held a multi-disciplinary perspective in his research interests, he regularly shared his diverse findings via abstracts for other researchers and staff to enjoy. He was an active strategic advisor on The RP Group's Board of Directors for over a decade.

Since his retirement from the CCCCO at the end of 2011, Willard has spent most of his time as the head tennis coach for a local high school, playing tennis with friends, collecting and listening to music (mainly pop oldies and jazz), and finally reading all the books he collected over the years on political science, economics, sociology, and research methods.

We are proud to celebrate Willard Hom for his unparalleled contributions toward advancing state and national accountability reporting, and for integrating conversations about student outcomes into the daily work of researchers throughout California.