This proceedings contains papers from the 2002 annual conference of the Northeast Association for Institutional Research, a meeting devoted to assessment in the 21st century and the challenges that face institutional research. The papers are: (1) "Putting Community College Enrollment Trends in Perspective by the Use of Census Data and Market Measurement Techniques" (Karl Boughan and Ophelia Robinson); (2) "Linking Assessment Planning and Mission Review: One University's Experience" (Ellen Boylan-Fick and Barbara R. Sadowski); (3) "An Assessment of Standardized Accuplacer Placement Scores for College English in the Connecticut Community-Technical College System" (Corby A. Coperthwaite and William F. Ritchie); (4) "Enhancing Outcomes Assessment by Discovering Alumnae/i Success Strategies" (Anne Marie Delaney); (5) "Determinants of Student Dropout in Critical Periods: Cohort Differences at a Virtual University" (Tae Young Han and Mitchell S. Nesler); (6) "Linking Internal Transfer Patterns to College Student Experiences: A Case Study" (Jean O. Marriott and Catherine J. Alvord); (7) "An Analysis of the Retention of First-Time Full-Time Freshmen at a Public Urban University" (Kevin B. Murphy); (8) "The Impact of Contact Type on Web Survey Response Rates" (Stephen R. Porter and Michael E. Whitcomb); (9) "Statistical Methods for Predicting Yield: A Comparison of the Accuracy of Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Neural Network and Boosted Logistic Regression" (Richard J. Reeves and Martin T. Wells); (10) "Paper vs. Web: The Differential Impact on Responses of Men and Women" (Heather S. Roscoe and Dawn Geronimo Terkal); (11) "The Frequencies of Student Online Activity as Predictors of Course Grade" (Charles Secolsky and Cliff L. Wood); (12) "Using Grid-Group Theory To Understand Students and Institutions" (Carol Trosset); (13) "Assessment and Assisting the College President Steer the Ship: An Analytic Comparison of Dashboard Indicators, the Balanced Scorecard, Performance Measures, and Six Sigma in the College and University Setting" (Gail Wisan); and (14) "Closing the Assessment Loop: Applying Results of a Primary Trait Analysis To Improve Educational Outcomes" (David W. Wright, Elizabeth A. Robinson, and Marsha V. Krotseng). Each paper contains references. (Contains 10 figures, 10 charts, 2 diagrams, and 42 tables.) (SLD)