From the fall of 2008 through the spring of 2011, 47 colleges and universities, organized and supported by the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), administered the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) to their students. The CLA is a test of critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem solving, and written communication developed by the…

On September 2, 2010, the U.S. Department of Education announced the winners of the $350 million Race to the Top Comprehensive Assessment Systems Competition: the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SMARTER). In his announcement, Secretary of Education Arne…

In recent years, an acrimonious debate has broken out in higher-education circles about institutional accountability and performance. Efforts to alter federal policy in particular have been flashpoints for often heated discourse about the ways that colleges and universities could--and should--demonstrate their effectiveness to skeptical outsiders.…

The Small College Consortium is a project funded under Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 for developing institutions. Under the project, technical assistance and financial resources were provided to 54 colleges to learn to use new techniques and processes to overcome weak areas of their institutions. The evaluation covers the fiscal…

The Small College Consortium is funded under Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965 for developing institutions. Under this project technical assistance and financial resources are provided to 54 colleges to learn to use new techniques and processes to overcome weak areas of their institutions. The evaluation is for the fiscal year 1976-77…

This compendious study was undertaken to consider how to deal with increasing student enrollments and decreasing higher education budgets so that students would not suffer unduly from program reductions. The study includes Part I, Perspective, considering the changing purposes and goals of higher education and recommending strategies for changes…

A case study of a contract college involving Union College and Union County Technical Institute in New Jersey is presented. The arrangement between these two colleges provides the county with the services and facilities of two community colleges, one specializing in technical and career programs and the other in academic courses. Historical…

This study describes the state of postsecondary assessment in Maryland, identifies cognitive or noncognitive areas assessed, investigates perceptions about the role of the institutional researcher in assessment activities, and analyzes information to guide the formation of an assessment consortium. The paper serves as a case study of the types of…

Institutional research is viewed by many persons as the process of providing appropriate data for the purpose of making sound decisions. The major place for applying the principles of the discipline of institutional research has mostly been in institutions of higher learning and a few large metropolitan public school districts. It is proposed that…

Adult education program designs are described for four institutions: Mary Baldwin College, Loretto Heights College, the Vermont State Colleges, and Clark University. A network formed among these institutions serving as a mutual support system by which research and literature could be exchanged. Four common premises developed: (1) the decision to…

Explores the role of the academic library director in reconceptualizing the scholarly communication process in response to rising acquisitions costs. Highlights include being a catalyst for change; accountability; planning strategies and alliances, including ARL (Association of Research Libraries) and library consortia; and identifying target…

Information about the rate of student transfer from two- to four-year institutions and transfer students' achievement at the senior institutions can be obtained in several ways. One approach is the utilization of a statewide student tracking system, which permits easy identification of student progress at any level in the system. Systemwide…

An evaluation of the California Student Opportunity and Access Program (Cal-SOAP) by the Postsecondary Education Commission is presented. The Cal-SOAP is a competitive-grants program designed to encourage cooperative, interinstitutional projects to increase the enrollment of low-income high school students in postsecondary institutions and to…