The problem that was addressed in this qualitative case study was that student retention and graduation rates at community colleges have been affected by the lack of support provided to students during their academic careers. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to gain an understanding of how administrators perceived they were acting in…

Each year, millions of Americans enroll in community colleges, seeking to develop the skills necessary to pursue a career or to transfer to a four-year institution. Community colleges serve large proportions of nontraditional, low-income, and minority students, and they are designed to provide access to a postsecondary education at a low or…

Learning analytics offers higher education valuable insights that can inform strategic decision-making regarding resource allocation for educational excellence. Research demonstrates that learning management systems (LMSs) can increase student sense of community, support learning communities and enhance student engagement and success, and LMSs…

In 2004, Lumina Foundation for Education launched "Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count," a national initiative aimed at improving success among community college students, particularly low-income students and students of color. Now encompassing more than 130 institutions in 24 states and the District of Columbia, Achieving the…

Academic program life cycle concept states each program's life flows through several stages: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. A mixed-influence diffusion growth model is fitted to enrolment data on academic programs to analyze the factors determining progress of academic programs through their life cycles. The regression analysis yield…

Smaller universities may produce research which is on a par with larger, elite establishments. This is confirmed by a recently developed mathematical model, supported by data from British and French higher education research-evaluation exercises. The detailed nature of the UK system, in particular, allows quantification of the notion of critical…

The summative evaluation of the Small College Consortium (SCC) for the school year 1977-78 examined the project to assess: its perceived impact; the effectiveness of the project staff; the adequacy of the budget available to each college; the degree to which comprehensive, integrated, ongoing development has taken hold; perceived needs for future…

Information on institutional research, planning, and evaluation is provided in 15 conference presentations. The papers included in the collection are: (1) "The Nature of Institutional Research in the Community College (CC)" by James L. Wattenbarger; (2) "The Range and Organization of Data for Research" by Richard L. Alfred; (3) "Research Methods…

The paper focuses on three critical programming issues in providing support services to higher education students with learning disabilities. The first issue concerns the garnering of administrative support for students with learning disabilities. Administrative support cannot be effectively achieved until college administrators determine where…

This report of the proceedings of a conference on institutional research techniques contains information on the conference and 23 selected papers. Conference information includes the program, a list of steering committee members, and a list of attenders. The following papers are included: (1) "Examples of How Institutional Research Can Help…

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…

The future of faculty development programs will benefit most from a systematic assessment of program goals, a factor often ignored or taken for granted while program process and product are evaluated. (MSE)

Many institutions develop institutional goals, but few continue to the next step--assessing the extent to which the institution has achieved its goals. Some methods for assessing progress toward achieving goals are described.(MLW)

This paper responds to Resolution 9.05 Fall 2007, calling for an update of the Academic Senate's 1996 paper Program Review: Developing a Faculty Driven Process in the light of recent accreditation changes and other emerging issues. This paper has been written to expand on the best elements of the 1996 paper and to stand on its own without…

This is the first in a series of reports that will document the Simon Fraser University Teacher Assistant Training Program (TAT). This study reports data collected during the first semester of evaluation, and contains evidence regarding the TAs' sense of satisfaction and competence in their instructional roles and student perceptions of TAs'…