Efforts to develop common higher education data standards are expanding both within and across countries. The institutional research (IR) community plays a critical role in assuring that these efforts capture the diverse manifestations of the postsecondary and tertiary education systems and promote responsible comparisons. This chapter provides…

The past 25 years have witnessed an ebb and flow of the accountability movement in the United States as national interest in and concern about the quality and effectiveness of higher education have moved in and out of the forefront of public consciousness. Today Democrats and Republicans alike are critical of higher education and calling for…

Summarizes the lessons learned by the institutions participating in the Urban Universities Portfolio Project regarding the functional and technological requirements for creating and sustaining Web-based institutional portfolios. The most pressing issues were those of aligning technology resources with analytical, evaluative, academic, and design…

Most decisions are made not by individuals but by groups. Knowing how the group process works and how information enters it can improve the quality of decisions, and can enhance the institutional researcher's role as data supplier and lead methodologist. (Author/MSE)

Five criteria for judging college or university performance indicators (PIs) used to guide strategic decision making are outlined. The criteria address: purpose; alignment of PIs throughout the organization or system; alignment of PIs across inputs, processes, and outcomes; capacity to accommodate a variety of evaluation methods; and utility in…

The effect of alternative census dates on the determination of student enrollment and retention rates and the accuracy of tuition revenue projections was analyzed at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. A set of pseudo-extract files was created for the first 8 weeks of two consecutive fall semesters (1993 and 1994). The accuracy of…

The history of performance indicators for evaluation of institutions of higher education in the United States and Europe is chronicled to provide a context for understanding the definitions and methods used to develop them. Performance indicators are defined and described in relation to other measures used for assessment of institutions, drawing…

A market segmentation analysis was conducted on students at a large midwestern urban university using two forms of hierarchical cluster analysis on student characteristics: an agglomerative procedure using a matching-type association measure and a divisive chi-square based automatic interaction detection (CHAID) procedure. Data were extracted from…

A student engagement model is proposed to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the bond between student and college. The model focuses on a student's motivation for attending college, the tension that derives from conflicting motivations, and the social context of the student-college bond. The validity of the model was examined in a…

The relationship between student satisfaction and performance and persistence were studied at a large midwestern, urban commuter university. A student satisfaction survey was completed by 1,643 students (out of 3,004 students), who rated their level of satisfaction with 48 specific and 5 general aspects of their college experiences. Performance…

A discussion of new technologies and strategies for monitoring college student progress identifies four stages of developing information systems: (1) problem definition and systems specification; (2) data extraction and synthesis; (3) data analysis; and (4) dissemination. Some trends in use of data sources, analysis types, tracking capabilities,…