 Institutional Research and the Culture of Evidence at Community CollegesBy: Vanessa Smith Morest & Davis Jenkins — April 2007. Report No. 1 in the Achieving the Dream Culture of Evidence Series. New York: Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University.Community college leaders have begun to consider expanding the traditional role of institutional research (IR) at their colleges. This is due in part to a number of influences. Federal and state governments and accreditors are pressing colleges to provide more data demonstrating evidence of student outcomes. In addition, the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count initiative and several other national projects have begun to raise awareness about the potential benefits of using data to improve institutional performance. Implementing such an improvement strategy requires not only a capacity for data collection and analysis, but also a willingness to shift organizational culture in considerable ways. Thus, community colleges that want to embark upon such a plan face formidable challenges.
This report presents findings from a study conducted by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) on how well prepared today’s community colleges are in moving toward the greater use of data and research to improve student success. Data for the study were drawn from two major sources: first, an e-mail survey of college administrators responsible for IR, and, second, case studies of 28 community colleges. The study aimed to learn how much IR capacity community colleges have in terms of IR staff size and facility with research methods, how IR is utilized by different actors within colleges, and what barriers exist that impede the development of IR analysis that would benefit college decision making.
The study finds that community colleges wanting to expand the role of IR face several challenges in terms of resources, data collection, and institutional priorities. It also suggests that college leadership is a key component in making the necessary investment in IR capacity and in promoting changes in organizational practice that are required to embrace a strategy for using data to improve institutional performance. View PDF version
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