This chapter provides a taxonomy of student veterans in the form of a codebook to assist in institutional data collection and analysis.

Multilevel modeling (MLM) gives researchers the ability to make inferences about organizations where nesting factors will bias results and the assumption of independence is not tenable. This article provides an overview of the variety of data sources that lend themselves to conducting institutional research (IR). It not only serves as a repository…

In this article, the author discusses how researchers can use mixed-methods approaches and intersectional analyses to understand college access among first-generation Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). First, he discusses the utility of mixed-methods approaches and intersectionality research in studying college access. Then, he…

The sophisticated analytical techniques available to institutional researchers give them an array of procedures to estimate a causal effect using observational data. But as many quantitative researchers have discovered, access to a wider selection of statistical tools does not necessarily ensure construction of a better analytical model. Moreover,…

In this chapter, the authors explore the effect of incentives on attrition and nonresponse in a multi-institutional longitudinal study. They organize this chapter into three sections. First, they review the literature regarding nonresponse among students and the effects of incentives on attrition and nonresponse in studies that employ…

Colleges and universities in the United States are being challenged to assess student outcomes and the quality of programs and services. One of the more widely used sources of evidence is student engagement as measured by a cluster of student engagement surveys administered by the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University. They…

In this article, the authors demonstrate how researchers can integrate qualitative and quantitative methods to gain a deeper understanding of the prevalence and nature of cultural taxation among black professors. In doing so, they show how the impact of cultural taxation on the experiences of black faculty in the academy is best captured using…

The Ethical Analysis Protocol is a set of questions on treatment of participants, research practices, and sociopolitical dimensions of research that can be used to elicit information about ethical assumptions, constraints, and implications of institutional research studies. They provide a framework for ethical analysis of an institutional research…

Useful reference material and a list of professional associations are provided for the institutional researcher interested in qualitative research. (MSE)

There is almost nothing more frustrating to an institutional researcher than seeing university leaders ignore data. The case study in this article examines how an institutional research office was able to put data to work in enrollment services and produce record-setting numbers of applications, admissions, and confirmations within a nine-month…

In recent years, rapid advancement has taken place in computing technology that allows institutional researchers to efficiently and effectively address data of increasing volume and structural complexity (Luan, 2002). In this chapter, the authors propose a new data analytical technique, Bayesian belief networks (BBN), to add to the toolbox for…

There is a need for cross-disciplinary or cross-institutional research on student learning outcomes in graduate and professional education. Challenges in this endeavor include determining the purposes of assessment and who conducts it, identifying and defining outcomes, and managing the use of results. (MSE)

Five issues that emerge in institutional research when studying diversity on campus are identified: (1) the researcher is part of the change process; (2) in framing research questions, focus on the institution; (3) combining qualitative and quantitative methods can provide greater insight; (4) diversity touches all institutional elements and…

This chapter shows how institutional researchers can make use of geographic information systems (GIS) to improve the quality of their surveys and extract more information from their results. GIS can contribute to at least three stages of the survey process: (1) survey design (through a better understanding of the population being surveyed); (2)…

Ethnographic interviews offer the academic decision maker an alternative lens with which to gather information, develop hypotheses, and implement plans. Specific procedures must be followed to use the technique properly, and other research methods should accompany the ethnographic interview for increased validity. (MSE)