This chapter explores the role that research and evaluation play in supporting comprehensive reform in community colleges, focusing on lessons from two major initiatives: Achieving the Dream and Completion by Design.

This chapter describes several examples of institutional use of state- and college-level tracking data to benchmark performance, improve student success, and enhance program effectiveness.

This chapter describes the National Student Clearinghouse and discusses opportunities and challenges for tracking community college students. It also presents a system perspective on using clearinghouse data to promote more comprehensive student and graduate tracking. (Contains 2 tables.)

This chapter examines lessons learned by states that are using student unit record (SUR) data to improve outcomes for community college students and recommends steps states can take to strengthen their use of SUR databases to benefit students and communities. (Contains 1 exhibit.)

This chapter describes how the Kansas Study of Community College Instructional Costs and Productivity can be used in state, institutional, and regional accreditation contexts.

Reviews the benefits a community college can accrue through a search for institutional distinctiveness, focusing on the value of the research process itself, the findings, and the changes that will take place if the findings are used effectively in planning and marketing. (DMM)

Discusses trends in two-year college research, defines research, and poses questions that must be answered before research can be used effectively in management. Outlines steps in a decision-making system that converts data into planning concepts. Explains the need for a master plan and describes the master-planning process. (DD)

Argues that community colleges must be able to incorporate information about themselves and their clientele into delivery systems, operational strategies, and strategic planning. Underscores the importance of program evaluation in institutional planning and of needs assessments as a vital communications process between service area and college.…

Offers an overview of trends and issues in student tracking, including methods of collecting data, determining which data should be gathered, obtaining follow-up data, and using results to inform decisions about institutional planning and improvement. (DMM)

Underscores the importance of scholarship to the community college president's professional development, presenting scholarship as a way of keeping in touch with core values, setting an institutional climate, gaining credibility, renewing and revitalizing oneself, and enhancing leadership effectiveness. Identifies barriers to presidential…

Relates decision making to institutional research. Describes the development of the institutional research function in community colleges. Recommends professional development for institutional researchers. Reviews the literature on administrative use of institutional research and defines management. Discusses the role of research in planning,…

Presents a model of community college decision making based on institutional research illustrated using a case study of Pueblo Community College (Colorado). Describes three stages of an action plan including curriculum renewal, development of assessment and remediation services, and image improvement. Reviews results of research-based activities…

Provides an overview of the process by which community college practitioners can research their institution's distinctive elements and features. Explains the use of information on institutional distinctiveness in program development, marketing, and college planning. (DMM)

Describes the Kansas Community College Research Consortium (KCCRC), focusing on motivations for organizing a research consortium to meet accountability demands, the KCCRC's organization and operating procedures, determination of objectives and dissemination of results, strengths and weaknesses, and examples of KCCRC studies. (DMM)

This chapter discusses how Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) has used data from the National Community College Benchmark Project. Analysis of project benchmark data led to a review of high course-withdrawal rates and CPCC withdrawal policies as well as their effects on student program completion and within-term retention. As a result, the…