This document provides ideas for collaboration between English, Math, and credit ESL faculty and institutional research, planning, and effectiveness (IRPE) professionals in the California Community Colleges to examine local impacts of AB 705. The ideas from this document were generated and collated from regional workshops and events hosted by the…

This chapter captures the mission and spirit of the California State University in its efforts to institutionalize undergraduate research and support the success of students traditionally underrepresented in higher education.

No institution relishes reliving the dark moments of its history, but addressing legacies of discrimination can strengthen campus inclusivity, embody shared values, and communicate how and why the institution has evolved over time. Colleges and universities with complex histories can benefit by exploring that history. No matter how a project…

Over the last few decades, college admission rates for Latinos have increased. However, the achievement gap between Latino students and other ethnic groups remains wide. Peer mentorship programs have shared in some degree of success in promoting the academic success of diverse and underrepresented student populations. Despite the growing…

When the W.K. Kellogg Foundation first approached a group of tribal college presidents in 1994 with a $23 million grant for a handful of their institutions, the tribal college leaders did not exactly trip over themselves to get the money. They wanted it to be split among all of them, and the foundation honored the tribal college leaders' wish.…

This chapter describes the system office for community college institutional research in California. As the system IR office for the largest community college system in the nation, it is often looked to as a leader for other states and community college IR systems. The author notes the office's administrative environment, its staffing and…

The system office for community college institutional research (SOCCIR) plays a role in the drama of higher education that states must orchestrate to help community college systems operate effectively and efficiently over the long term. But how exactly does the SOCCIR enable a state to accomplish what the separate institutional research (IR)…

How can it be that 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, our institutions of higher education have still not found ways of reducing the higher education gaps for racial and ethnic groups? That is the question that informs and animates the Equity Scorecard model of organizational change. It shifts institutions' focus from what…

This article features the Sanchez Elementary School located in the Mission District in San Francisco, California. Every child at Sanchez School has the opportunity to develop a healthy identity fostering social, emotional, physical, and intellectual competencies. Children's identity and associated competencies are explored in a variety of learning…

This document is intended for leaders and decision makers who work with community colleges at the classroom, college, and system level. Readers will find an overview of the purpose, activities, findings, and recommendations from a three-year project involving 11 California community colleges, undertaken as a partnership between The Carnegie…

This report provides an update on current grant projects funded through the Improving Teacher Quality State Grants Program. These include grants targeted to academic literacy in secondary education and to the retention of science and mathematics teachers. The Commission also received information on plans for the 2007 competition process, which…

HSIs (Hispanic-Serving Institutions) are important institutions for Latinos, yet little research exists on them. This brief serves as a primer on the conditions and history behind their invention, the processes for identification, and the general institutional characteristics of HSIs. It also offers an overview of how these institutions are…

Beginning in the 2000-01 Academic Year, the Los Rios Community College District Office of Institutional Research (IR) began a collaboration with Occupational and Area Deans as well as Faculty from each of the four Los Rios Colleges located in Sacramento, CA (American River College, Cosumnes River College, Folsom Lake College and Sacramento City…

In light of growing concern for the measurement of educational effectiveness, this paper advocates institutional research at the community college level in California's community colleges to answer crucial questions concerning students, programs, and communities and urges trustees and administrators to use research results to inform decision…