This paper analyzes the research performance evolution of a scientific institute, from its genesis through various stages of development. The main aim is to obtain, and visually represent, bibliometric evidence of the correlation of organizational changes on the development of its scientific performance; particularly, structural and leadership…

In the mid-1990s, Mercer University's undergraduate schools placed incoming freshmen in their first mathematics course, using only their scores on the mathematics portion of the SAT (SATM). This placement policy was strongly supported by the admissions office because it did not require additional testing of the freshmen in their on-campus summer…

Promotion of diversity based on ethnic and racial identity of both students and faculty has become a central tenet in U.S. higher education, permeating everything from curricular development to student and faculty recruitment, and from campus infrastructural planning to articulation of an institution's strategic mission. References to diversity on…

This paper reviews the new directions in institutional research on undergraduate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity at the University of California, Berkeley. The use of SERU/UCUES and other web-based census surveys has made possible more detailed and extensive analysis of student diversity. Included is research on an expanded number of…

Over the last decade the proportion of students in higher education obtaining aggregate marks over 60 per cent has steadily increased. Whilst standards of learning and teaching may have improved due to the existence of quality assurance agencies and the efforts of individual higher education institutions a significant factor remains that could…

This report presents findings from a study conducted by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) on how well prepared today's community colleges are in moving toward the greater use of data and research to improve student success. Data for the study were drawn from two major sources: first, an e-mail survey of college administrators…

Appropriate questions to ask about each entering class, about students in general, and about the college itself are presented as potential subjects of institutional research. A program suggested for the evaluation and analysis of student achievement at the junior college includes data to be gathered from students on entrance to the institution, at…

The study of academics and athletics presents several methodological problems. Athletics research requires knowledge of numerous definitions and an understanding of the political environment in which sports operate, as revealed by an analysis of several models for calculating graduation rates, because these issues shape research outcomes.…

A study used a latent variable model with various factors to examine the relationship between college student grades and satisfaction. Results suggest satisfaction is a stronger influence on grades than vice versa. It is recommended that popular recursive models be reevaluated because nonrecursive models may more accurately represent effects.…

Because change is fundamental to education and the measurement of change assesses the quality and effectiveness of postsecondary education, this study examined three methods of measuring change: (1) gain scores; (2) residual scores; and (3) repeated measures. Data for the study was obtained from transcripts of 722 graduating seniors at the…

A study of applicants to the University of Illinois, Chicago, pharmacy school investigated 21 students' subjective motivations for seeking a professional degree. Students were identified as low or high academic performance and as exhibiting clinical, family, science, undecided, traditional community, and altruistic orientations. Implications of…

A study compared three methods for measuring college student growth and development in the course of a college education: (1) gain scores; (2) residual scores; and (3) repeated measures. Analyses indicated that all three are seriously flawed, although repeated measures offer the greatest potential for adequately representing student change.…

A model of student persistence that considers the role of student finances and student financial aid was investigated in 1980, with a focus on federal campus-based aid. Linear Structural Relations (LISREL), a more versatile technique than traditional path analysis, accounted for 42 percent of the variance in the persistence of 343 new freshmen…

The usefulness of the College Outcome Measures Project (COMP), sponsored by the American College Testing Program, was assessed based on a 1979 study of 96 University of Minnesota graduating seniors. Three questions were examined: whether graduates within the same institution but in different curricula achieve different outcome scores; whether…

The use of of the Automatic Interaction Detector (program AID3 of the OSIRIS statistical package) to study a university program is discussed. The performance of students who took general physics lecture and laboratory concurrently is compared to the performance of those who took them separately. Five years of data are analyzed, covering 1,997…