One of the continuing areas of controversy surrounding higher education is affirmative action. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear "Fisher v. Texas," and their ruling may well influence universities' diversity initiatives, especially if they overturn "Grutter v. Bollinger" and rule that diversity is no longer a…

Charters represent an expansion of public school choice, offering free, publicly funded educational alternatives to traditional public schools. One relatively unexplored research question concerning charter schools asks whether charter schools are more efficient suppliers of educational services than are traditional public schools. The potential…

"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 publication presents examples of outcome and institutional effectiveness information produced through student and employer follow-up for Texas community and technical colleges from 1978-1987. The data in the booklet were collected through the Texas Student Information System (Tex-SIS) and are presented in reference to a series of questions…

A state-mandated outcomes assessment test for certification of teachers has been administered in Texas since 1986. At Southwest Texas State University, which produces the most certified teachers in the state, the assessment showed that its students were not also among the best. In response to this situation, a presidential committee conducted…

Information on the use and effectiveness of follow-up surveys in four-year and two-year institutions are obtained. In the four-year sector, 55 public and 34 private colleges were included, while in the two-year sector, the entire public systems of four states were compared. This involved 15 institutions in Georgia, 17 in Maryland, 16 in South…