Benchmarking Equity and Student Success Tool™ (BESST)

The Benchmarking Equity and Student Success Tool™ (BESST) is a web-based data tool which allows evidence team members to see their institutional data in graphic form and to interact with the data findings to set short- and long-term goals.

It is designed to keep the team’s “eyes on the prize” by first setting high goals for equity and student success. Then these goals become actionable when the team establishes performance benchmarks at specific intervention points, and they agree to monitor and improve them continuously.

The BESST™:

• Breaks down abstract goals into specific rates of success and key milestones along the educational pipeline.


• Pinpoints trouble spots along the pipeline, highlighting potential intervention points.


• Tracks outcomes for a cohort of students through selected milestones to a completion outcome, such as graduation.


• Simplifies the calculation of rates of success by race and milestone


• Allows colleges to easily and quickly identify areas in need of focused inquiry into the factors affecting student success.


• Enables users to set goals both along the pipeline and at the end to visualize the change.