The methods and models for categorical data analysis cover considerable ground, ranging from regression-type models for binary and binomial data, count data, to ordered and unordered polytomous variables, as well as regression models that mix qualitative and continuous data. This article focuses on methods for binary or binomial data, which are…

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 the current era of accountability, tracking student achievement and success is of the utmost importance in higher education. While measuring student success may be particularly important to community colleges, it may also be especially complex in light of their multiple missions. This chapter discusses indices and other measures to gauge…

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…

Among the diverse and varied missions of community colleges is the provision of instruction for students who have either been underserved by their previous educational institutions or not had the opportunity to complete high school. Included under this umbrella are low-performing high school students, individuals with low basic skills, and those…

It is a historically held principle of microeconomics that in the presence of better information, consumers make better decisions. This chapter focuses on information to guide consumers in making decisions about higher education. It examines the development and implementation of a one-stop career and college planning tool that leverages existing…

The need for educational programs to show their return on investment is exemplified in the intense debate surrounding gainful employment programs--defined as programs that lead to gainful employment in a recognized occupation and theoretically differ from programs that offer education in the liberal arts or prepare students for further education.…

Surveys and benchmarks continue to grow in importance for community colleges in response to several factors. One is the press for accountability, that is, for colleges to report the outcomes of their programs and services to demonstrate their quality and prudent use of resources, primarily to external constituents and governing boards at the state…

Marketing is an essential component of an effective enrollment management plan. The broad mission of a comprehensive community college requires multiple, targeted communications campaigns. Institutional research can contribute to marketing success at all phases of decision making.

The community college environment is complex and dynamic, requiring constant monitoring. To ensure that workforce education, a core component of community colleges' missions, remains aligned with colleges' environments, responsive to employers' needs, suited to students' interests and abilities, and current in content and technology, it is…

The influence of emotions in the workplace rarely has been examined within the context of higher education (Neumann, 2006; Smith and Witt, 1993). Through a qualitative approach, the purpose of this chapter is to offer a perspective of faculty work that examines the role that emotions play in the academic life of 15 underrepresented faculty members…

In the past 20 years, the number of international faculty members at American universities has continued to increase rapidly. This growth is evident in data showing that the proportional representation of foreign-born faculty easily surpasses that of domestic underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. The increasing presence of international faculty…

Institutional researchers might know more about non-tenure-track (NTT) faculty than leaders on many college campuses, particularly four-year institutions and research universities (Cross and Goldenberg, 2009). As such, institutional researchers play an important role in educating campus leaders about this growing segment of the academic workforce.…

This study provides a multilens examination of the diversity of full-time faculty in the United States across 11 institutional types derived from Carnegie classifications, by the intersection of race/ethnicity, citizenship, and gender and to make comparisons across time. Whereas few other studies have assessed faculty diversity for the for-profit…

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…