The demand to hold public institutions accountable for their accomplishments did not begin in the field of higher education. However, in the last 10-15 years, the movement for increased accountability in higher education has gained momentum. California, a trailblazing and trend setting state in many areas, has not made performance measuring a priority and, consequently, lags behind most of the nation in developing and implementing an effective statewide accountability framework. The staff of the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) seeks to take an active approach in addressing this problem by collaborating with higher education researchers, university administrators, legislators, statisticians, and accountability experts from other states to develop a framework to measure California's progress in educating its citizenry. This document is a research prospectus that outlines the issues and questions around which the process for developing this framework must be centered.