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Institutional Research and the Culture of Evidence at Community Colleges

By Vanessa Smith Morest & Davis Jenkins
This report presents findings from a study 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: an email survey of college administrators responsible for institutional research (IR) and case studies of 28 community colleges. 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.
  • Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count

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April 2007

Related Publications

March 2009

Achieving the Dream Colleges in Pennsylvania and Washington State: Early Progress Toward Building a Culture of Evidence

February 2009

Evidence-Based Decision Making in Community Colleges: Findings From a Survey of Faculty and Administrator Data Use at Achieving the Dream Colleges

Additional Resources

For more policy briefs and fact sheets, visit CCRC’s Policy Resources page.

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