Tennessee officials describe 100% outcomes funding model, warn of complexity and data limits

Tennessee Higher Education Commission Executive Director Steven Gentile and senior fiscal policy official Russell Van Zomeren told Pennsylvania's Performance Based Funding Council that Tennessee has used an outcomes-based funding formula since 2010 and now allocates operating appropriations based on measured outcomes rather than enrollment headcounts.

Gentile said the Complete College Tennessee Act of 2010 (CCTA) replaced a prior enrollment-based model and established outcomes — retention, progression, degree production and mission-weighted measures — as the basis for recommendations to the governor and legislature. "Since 2010, the state has followed our recommendations, determining on what share each institution should receive of the overall pie based on their performance," Gentile said.

The CCTA also created a formal review process. Van Zomeren described a five-year review cycle and a standing funding-formula review committee made up of institutional presidents, legislative committee chairs and state officials. "Every five years this group comes together to do a complete overhaul of the funding formula if it is necessary," he said.

Why it matters: Tennessee participants presented their system as an example Pennsylvania can study as it…