Performance funding has been a popular form of funding colleges and universities for several decades. Often the purpose is to make universities more efficient (Miao, 2012). Missouri has had two separate models of performance funding in play, a decade apart. In this research both performance funding models are examined, including a 10- year period when no performance funding model was in place, to see if there has been an impact on retention and graduation metrics at four-year public institutions in Missouri. The organization of higher education in Missouri is examined through Weick's (1978/1983) loosely coupled systems to better understand the components of the system. Using publicly available retention and graduation data from the 13 public universities, a quantitative analysis using an ANOVA is used to see if there is a significant difference in retention and graduation rates between the three funding models. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]