Assessment information should be actionable in that findings must be used to improve the student experience and educational effectiveness. Assessment is a worthwhile undertaking when campuses generate meaningful data, thoroughly consider and discuss evidence-based improvement initiatives, and ultimately use results to improve educational…

As an enterprise that relies heavily on state funding, public higher education has long seen its support rise and fall with the boom-and-bust cycle of the economy. This chapter examines how the University System of Maryland repositioned itself as a state system able to thrive in an era of permanently diminished resources and perpetually escalating…

An overview is provided of the responses made by Maryland's community colleges to growing concerns for accountability and the measurement of educational outcomes. First, the paper reviews the legislative initiatives and agency actions that characterized the state's movement toward a formalized, state-coordinated institutional assessment procedure.…

Describes Maryland's community college research model, whereby State Board for Community Colleges staff work cooperatively with a voluntary statewide organization composed of institutional researchers from each college. Explains agenda setting, procedures, responsibilities, project monitoring, identification and dissemination of…

This volume presents five papers on higher education institutional research in Maryland, all of which were originally presented at annual meetings of the Maryland Association for Institutional Research from 1993 through 1995. The first paper is "A Day in the Life of an Institutional Researcher: Past, Present and Future" (Merill…