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…

For centuries, Native Hawaiians, like other Indigenous and historically oppressed communities, have been studied by Western researchers whose claims, until recently, have been accepted without question and in many instances have led to Native Hawaiians' continued oppression. However, now that growing numbers of Native Hawaiians and individuals…

Arthur M. Cohen and his colleagues at the Center for the Study of Community Colleges have made significant and broad contributions to the scholarly literature and empirical research about community colleges. Although Cohen's interests are comprehensive and his writings touch on multiple issues associated with community colleges, his empirical work…

Arthur M. Cohen has spoken to community college leaders on a diverse array of issues for many years. This article focuses on his contributions to this leadership in three major areas: (a) providing a vision of community colleges as collegiate institutions, (b) offering valuable and thought-provoking insight into the current context for community…

Berta Vigil Laden was a scholar who helped raise our understanding of minority-serving institutions generally and Hispanic-serving institutions in particular. She approached her work with empathy and compassion. This article reviews her major contributions.

This paper discusses data mining--an end-to-end (ETE) data analysis tool that is used by researchers in higher education. It also relates data mining and other software programs to a brand new concept called "Knowledge Management." The paper culminates in the Tier Knowledge Management Model (TKMM), which seeks to provide a stable…

An effective environmental scan will improve the quality of community college planning and decision making by alerting institutional leaders to the challenges and opportunities in the environment. Scanning can be done in three ways: (1) establishing a scanning committee to gather and synthesize information to guide planning; (2) sponsoring a…

Describes the Kansas Community College Research Consortium (KCCRC), focusing on motivations for organizing a research consortium to meet accountability demands, the KCCRC's organization and operating procedures, determination of objectives and dissemination of results, strengths and weaknesses, and examples of KCCRC studies. (DMM)

Institutional research in the community college suffers from lack of fiscal support and trained personnel. The project described here was conceived to enhance the capabilities of 12 people assigned research responsibilities in California community colleges who lacked sufficient training in research design and methodology. The overall plan was to…

Describes the success of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development's "Innovation Abstracts," a weekly publication written by and for practitioners. Suggests that the publication's success has spread beyond its originally intended audience to faculty, students, trustee and advisory boards, community residents,…

Describes the Los Rios Community College District's district-coordinated institutional research model. Considers the coordination of centralized and campus-based research, types of research conducted, quality control, the district research council, setting research agendas, program implementation and monitoring, information dissemination, and the…

Describes Santa Barbara City College's decentralized research program, considering the roles of the president, vice presidents, deans, institutional research committee members, and data-processing director. Explains how the research agenda is determined, projects monitored, results/implications identified, and findings disseminated. Highlights…

Presents the research model used in the Allan Hancock Joint Community College District, which operates through a part-time institutional researcher guided by an institutional research committee. Discusses the committee's role and the use of research results in policymaking and other areas. Provides examples of research. (DMM)

Describes the centralized research model used by Miami-Dade Community College. Explains that the district's central office assumes responsibility for conducting all phases of the institutional research program (e.g., determining the research agenda, carrying out projects, monitoring projects, and disseminating results). Highlights strengths and…

Discusses the growth of the assessment movement, reviews the different measures of student performance being requested by state agencies, and describes institutional responses to state mandates. Offers guidelines for implementing an effective assessment program. (DMM)