ONGOING RESEARCH

Study of Institutional Research Capacity

Institutional research (IR) is an important but understudied function of community colleges. The roles of IR departments are multifaceted, since they are responsible for providing data and reports to a variety of audiences, including state and federal governments, accreditation agencies, district and college administrators, faculty, and the general public. Today, to a greater degree than ever before, community colleges have in their computer systems vast and valuable pools of data that trace the progress and performance of their students. However, since institutional research is frequently under-funded and relatively undeveloped at the colleges, this important source of information, which could inform community college policies and programs, remains underutilized and seldom tapped to its true potential.

CCRC’s study includes both quantitative and qualitative analyses of IR practices. First, we have conducted a national survey of 200 randomly selected IR departments. The goal of this survey was to better understand, across all types of community colleges, the structures and practices related to research and data collection. Second, we are conducting a series of telephone interviews with 30 community colleges. At each college, we interview IR directors, presidents, vice presidents, and faculty to find out how IR is conducted and how its findings are used by multiple stakeholders within the institutions. We expect to complete this study by the end of 2005.

Early findings from the study are available in a Spring 2005 presentation  by Vanessa Morest of CCRC.