This chapter describes the system office for community college institutional research (SOCCIR) for the State of Florida. The Division of Florida Colleges has a long history of providing reports that contain information on issues of interest to both the individual members of the system and the public. Fact books have been produced by the office for…

Community colleges are pulling back the covers of student performance in favor of a new "culture of evidence." One hundred two community colleges in 22 states have joined Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count. Backed by a partnership of foundations and research organizations, the effort provides funding, coaching, and data-driven…

"Building Institutional Capacity for Data-Informed Decision Making" is the third installment of the Cutting Edge series, which aims to help colleges engage faculty, scale successful interventions, and create a strong culture of evidence through use of data to strengthen their institutional change and student success efforts. Though the…

This chapter describes several examples of institutional use of state- and college-level tracking data to benchmark performance, improve student success, and enhance program effectiveness.

Describes Santa Fe Community College's (Florida) computer-based system for assessing students' basic skills, placing them into appropriate courses, and tracking their subsequent academic progress. Considers ways in which the college's tracking system has been modified in response to state mandates. (DMM)

Conducted as a part of the Needs Assessment Project, a study was made primarily to develop an instrument that could help community college decision makers determine the proportion of students that were working in areas related to those studied in college. Additional information to be obtained included the reasons for attending college, graduates'…

Sixty-six students were enrolled in a combined Social Science-English experimental section which permitted them their choice of learning method. Options available were lecture, small group, programmed instruction, directed study and community involvement, and students were encouraged to try a variety of approaches. Six questions relating to…

In a time of urgent need for cooperation among educational institutions, the community college may have a unique opportunity to serve as a bridge or means of communication, hence an agent in coordination. The articles presented here focus on coordination and cooperation: mechanisms for cooperation among higher education associations; ways of…

The quest for excellence in American higher education has been accompanied by the implementation of basic skills requirements and the corresponding assessment programs. Assessment results could provide feedback for curricular improvement, although they are frequently used as indicators of institutional quality. A study is presented that compared…

Proceedings of a Florida statewide conference on quality in higher education are presented. Topics include the following: databases, the community colleges' accounting for quality, program budgeting, and trends in truth in testing. Transcripts of a panel discussion on databases and the following papers and reports are included: "Quality and…

Centralized control of budgets and programs, a growing consumerism among students, and collective bargaining are among the issues addressed in a Florida statewide conference on institutional research. papers and reports include: the keynote address; a legislative workshop; a collective bargaining panel; The New College Story as Told by 103 Alumni…