This chapter introduces the Borough of Manhattan Community College's Institutional Effectiveness Assessment Plan and the Shults Dorimé-Williams Taxonomy as resources for the enhancement of assessment within administrative, educational, and student support units.

The JMC Innovation Project recently released its first report, "The 'New' JMC: Creating Cultures of Innovation in Schools of Journalism, Media and Communication," which assessed the scope and status of innovation in schools and colleges of journalism, media and communication (JMC), based on personal interviews with 70 deans and directors…

Recognizing that post-secondary student attainment and achievement is of increasing import for economic success, this study compares the post-secondary performance of students who attended public and private high schools. The results generally indicate that students who attended Catholic high schools had higher college grade-point averages (GPAs),…

A relatively simple way of measuring institutional effectiveness in relation to degree completion is to estimate the difference between an actual and predicted graduation rate, but the reliability and validity of this method have not been thoroughly examined. Longitudinal data were obtained from IPEDS for both public and private not-for-profit…

The evolution of community colleges from their origins as junior colleges to institutions with dual missions to provide both academic and workforce preparation raises questions about the impact of a college's mission focus on their students' labor market success. We examine this question using the 58 colleges in the North Carolina Community…

The population of students of color has grown threefold, and there are more than 40 cultural and social student affinity groups. More impressive, the graduation rate for African American, Latino, and Native students has increased by 13 percentage points in the last decade. In this brief, the authors dig into a decade's worth of data on four-year…

The evolution of community colleges from their origins as junior colleges to institutions with dual missions to provide both academic and workforce preparation raises questions about the impact of a college's mission focus on its students' labor market success. We examine this question using data from the 58 colleges in the North Carolina…

Purpose: With the increasing need for well-­-prepared and leading practitioners in the field of education as well as the renewed efforts to further distinguish the EdD from the PhD in higher education in recent years, the curriculum of EdD programs nationwide has been questioned and criticized for its disconnection from the needs of leading…

This article presents results of a study the author recently conducted on the role of traditional institutional research (IR) offices in support of accreditation activities and institutional effectiveness. The purpose of the study was to confirm or disconfirm the utility of a theoretical model developed by Brittingham, O'Brien, and Alig (2008) of…

The community college of today confronts decreased state funding, increased demand, and increased calls for accountability. In this highly competitive environment, community colleges are required to document the assessment of institutional effectiveness to satisfy state accountability systems and regional accreditation standards. The purpose of…

This report is in response to the requirement of RCW 28A.150.550 that the State Board of Education, with assistance from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board (WTECB), the Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee (EOGOAC), and the Washington…

University of California (UC) Berkeley's chief academic officer explores the historical sources of Berkeley' academic excellence. He identifies five key factors: (1) wealth from many sources; (2) supportive and skilled governors; (3) leadership from key UC presidents; (4) the pioneering ethos within the State of California; and (5) a process of…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Closing the Loop: How an Assessment Project Paved the Way for GE Reform (Joan Hawthorne and Anne Kelsch); (2) Value-Added? Committing to Quality: Guidelines for Assessment and Accountability in Higher Education (David C. Paris); (3) Creating a Cadre of Assessment…

Even on the sixth anniversary of the hurricane that buckled the Crescent City in 2005, left much of Xavier University of New Orleans under water and its faculty and students scattered by the rushing winds, Dr. JW Carmichael did not expect to be talking that morning about Katrina. For him it was a horrific storm that nearly drowned a hundred dreams…

The origins of institutional effectiveness are traced, its evolution within community colleges is described, the use of the term "institutional effectiveness" is analyzed, and a practical, operational definition of the term is presented. The author hopes that this definition and the discussion in this article prove useful to community college…