Federal education policy in recent years has encouraged state and local education agencies to embrace data use and analysis in decision-making, ranging from policy development and implementation to performance evaluation. The capacity of these agencies to make effective and methodologically sound use of collected data for these purposes remains an…

In 1985 a project was developed to strengthen policy guiding regionalization of occupational programs in New Jersey county community colleges. The project had three major goals: to establish a policy for the regionalization of selected occupational programs offered by the colleges; to describe ways that programs could be identified for regional…

As more emphasis is placed upon institutional research that provides information relating to long-term strategic planning, as well as to short-term operational considerations, program evaluation techniques that merely analyze past or current budget and enrollment statistics will become increasingly inadequate. Such techniques are based on data…

Harcum Junior College (Pennsylvania) continuously engages in institutional self-study through its comprehensive Institutional Research (IR) program. The IR Office conducts both decision-oriented research, where the problem is defined by the decision-maker, and conclusion-oriented research, where the items studied are selected by the researcher.…

While program evaluations at most community colleges provide decision-makers with tactical data relating to past or current budget and enrollment statistics, there is an increased need to evaluate programs on the basis of long-term strategic information relating to projected market forces such as the future economic health of the community or…

This paper defines a conceptual model for institutional research in the community college and identifies sources of information, programs, and services that provide data necessary for implementation of the model. The model contains four specific subsystems: goal setting, program development, program review, and cost effectiveness. Each subsystem…

This guidebook is designed to assist postsecondary occupational educators in the conduct of local program evaluation efforts. The Reality-Based Evaluation (RBE) system for program evaluation has been designed to be flexible within a general recommended structure and is intended to be adaptive rather than adoptive. A major tenet of RBE is that…

This project was conducted to refine and expand previous research indicating the need for an instrument counselors can use in working with area secondary schools and potential students to assess their progress in making career and training decisions. Instruments developed during this research process were pilot tested at two area schools and…

In order to improve its institutional research, Vancouver Community College (VCC) conducted a survey of faculty and administrative personnel to determine the data that were of greatest value in decision-making and planning and the areas in which existing data collection and analysis efforts needed improvement. The questionnaire asked respondents…

This document describes and provides forms used in the Eastern Iowa Community College District (EICCD) Vocational-Technical Program Evaluation Process. Chapter I describes development of the process and discusses the goals of program evaluation. Two major components of the program evaluation process--annual program review and 3-year in-depth…