In the fast-evolving field of information technology, visual communication design education must adapt through innovative curriculum reforms. This study employs the CIPP model to develop a robust index system for evaluating the effectiveness of these reforms within higher education institutions. Utilizing the entropy weight method for index weighting and the TOPSIS method for comprehensive evaluation, we assessed the reform quality across 12 colleges and universities. Our analysis, incorporating descriptive statistics and linear regression, reveals that a significant proportion (75%) of institutions score below 0.4, indicating average to low reform quality. Key factors impacting reform quality— teaching attitude, learning attitude, and course content—demonstrate substantial influence, with coefficients of 0.238, 0.648, and 0.658, respectively. All second-level factors showed a significant positive impact on reform quality, with significance coefficients below 0.01. These findings highlight the critical areas for enhancing curriculum reform efforts in visual communication design education.