This chapter provides institutional researchers a foundation to understand workforce data and how they can be accessed and used within an institutional research operating culture. Specific wage methodologies, earnings reporting, and future directions for using wage data are provided.

This chapter explores case studies from four private liberal arts colleges with different approaches to expanding the college "value proposition" to include the values of a liberal education.

Comprehensive data are essential to answer questions from prospective students, parents, and private and public entities about the cost of college and students' return on investment, as well as to demonstrate how colleges and universities are helping to prepare the future workforce. An evolutionary data-collection process, efforts to improve the…

There is a steady line of research to understand faculty diversity and its impact on the work life quality of faculty and learning outcomes of students in the U.S. higher education systems. What makes this volume unique is that, rather than treating diversity as a static and simplistic concept, the chapter authors presented information to show…

Assessment research is at its best when it packages research results and data so that they can be digested by multiple audiences. Too many assessment researchers spend all their efforts planning and executing the research project with little attention to closing the loop at the end. If assessment findings are not communicated effectively, the…

This chapter demonstrates that the effects of good teaching and academic challenge on leadership and psychological well-being during the first year of college differ for African-American and White students, which suggests that institutional researchers should disaggregate data by race or other relevant student characteristics when trying to…

The articles in this volume indicate that typological research on college students has been around for about half a century and has a strong presence in the literature on college students. The underlying assumption in typological research is that outcomes of interests (for example, student attitudes, experiences, and outcomes) and students…

While individuals in each country or part of the world face unique issues, many challenges facing higher education today are similar across the world. The great majority of higher education systems have grown in recent decades, enrolling far more students than they did in prior years and expanding their activities into new spheres such as economic…

In this chapter, the author examines the adequacy and appropriateness of self-report data using the lens of construct validity (Kane, 2006; Messick, 1989). Because construct validity focuses on the appropriateness of data for specific uses or interpretations, he limits his discussion to the use of self-report data in scholarly research. Other…

Evaluative statements from alumni have legitimacy with both internal and external stakeholders. Thus, alumni studies can provide valuable evidence of institutional effectiveness and lend themselves to both locally designed and commercial survey instruments for data collection. Under ideal conditions, the results of alumni studies equip faculty and…

Over the past twenty years, a substantial body of research has accumulated that suggests ethnic and racial diversity among college students yields significant educational benefits, including "steeper learning curves" and enhanced cognitive skills, and improved persistence. To improve one's understanding of how diversity may influence student…

College student self-reported gains are used frequently in institutional research and in general research on college outcomes (Gonyea, 2005). These self-report measures serve not only to identify experiences and programs associated with student growth but also to draw comparisons across colleges and universities. The vast majority of institutions…

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…

Understanding the suitability of multilevel modeling in the context of institutional research (IR) may ease the doubts of some IR professionals. However, the need for training on how to conduct and report multilevel modeling analysis remains. A major roadblock hindering the proliferation of multilevel modeling in IR is the perception that…

Given the high rate at which students report participation in cocurricular group experiences during college, it becomes critical to have a clear understanding of how these experiences related to both one another and educational outcomes. Existing research examined specific types of group experiences or simple involvement in general, failing to…