Given pressing enrollment, retention and completion issues at community colleges, the use of data analytic tools has gained more relevance for practitioners and scholars. Among these tools is machine learning, but its use is relatively new to community colleges and institutional research practice. This exploratory qualitative study examined a…

The state of California has the largest community college system in the United States with 1.8 million students from diverse backgrounds and 64% percent of students who are economically disadvantaged (California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, 2022; Felix & Castro, 2018). California community colleges also experience inequitable…

As improving equity becomes prioritized in higher education, Offices of Institutional Research (OIRs) find themselves in a central position to identify and address educational inequities faced by racially minoritized students. However, their potential to serve as a catalyst for organizational change has yet to be fulfilled. In this study, we…

Assessment, accountability, and transparency represent a greater focus than ever in higher education. Community colleges are not exempt from these requirements, though they are overlooked in the creation of state and national assessment instruments. Therefore, we designed and distributed the Perceptions of Community College Assessment (PCCA)…

In 2021, the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (the RP Group) conducted a survey of institutional research, planning, and effectiveness (IRPE) offices in the California Community Colleges (CCC) system. The purpose of this survey was to: (1) Identify key research and planning priorities and activities of the IRPE…

In this brief, Kaylan Baxter talks about the potentially transformative role of two connected units less commonly associated with racial justice: institutional research (IR) and institutional effectiveness (IE). Institutional research (IR) consists of a wide-ranging set of tasks conducted in support of the decision-making processes of various…

In 2019, the Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group) conducted a survey of institutional research, planning, and effectiveness (IRPE) offices in the California Community College system. The purpose of this survey was to: (1) Identify key research and planning priorities and activities of the IRPE offices; (2)…

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…

The demands on and expectations of Institutional Research (IR) departments at colleges and universities have continued to expand over the years, yet there have been no studies on cost effective ways to develop and maintain the knowledge and skills needed by professionals in the field. Using a survey and social network analysis, this study explored…

Community colleges and minority serving institutions play important roles in the U.S. higher education system. These open and predominantly broad access institutions serve more first-generation, low-income, post-traditional, and racially and ethnically diverse student populations than any other sector. Institutional leaders will increasingly need…

In this paper, I argue that researcher reflexivity, a common qualitative practice, is a specific tool that institutional research professionals endeavoring to conduct qualitative research studies involving Students of Color can use to unpack issues of power and privilege that exist between the researcher and the researched. This may be…

Various inequities and challenges facing Latinx students in community colleges continue to be documented. Yet, less documented are the challenges associated with "advocacy efforts" to support Latinx and other underrepresented Students of Color within the community college sector. There is not often pause to consider: "who advocates…

In this study, I draw on Bahr's ("Research in Higher Education" 51:724-749, 2010; New Directions for Institutional Research S1:33-48, 2011) behavioral typology of first-time community college students to examine college-level variation in students' patterns of use of 105 community colleges in California. I find that students' patterns of…

Prior research studies associated the employment of part-time faculty with student degree and/or certificate completion (Benjamin, 2002; Ehrenberg & Zhang, 2005; Jacoby, 2006; Leslie & Gappa, 2002; Umbach, 2008; Umbach & Wawrzynski, 2005). To date, institutional-level data have been utilized to investigate whether such employment…

This final chapter provides observations about institutional research in community colleges derived from the preceding chapters and the issue editors' own experiences. Taken as a whole, the chapters in this issue, as well as the editors' experiences, suggest several observations about institutional research in community colleges. These include the…