Resources

Association for Institutional Research (AIR)

Association for Institutional Research (AIR): https://www.airweb.org/

AIR is a global association that empowers higher education professionals at all levels to utilize data, analytics, information, and evidence to make decisions and take actions that benefit students and institutions and improve higher education.

Southern Association for Institutional Research (SAIR)

Southern Association for Institutional Research (SAIR): https://www.sair.org/

SAIR is dedicated to the advancement of research leading to improved understanding, planning, and operation of institutions of post-secondary education. SAIR provides a forum for the dissemination of information and interchange of ideas on problems of common interest in the field of institutional research.

Texas Association for Institutional Research (TAIR)

Texas Association for Institutional Research (TAIR): https://www.texas-air.org/

TAIR is the professional organization supporting institutional research, planning, evaluation, and policy analysis in Texas institutions of higher education. TAIR provides professional development opportunities through its annual conference, pre- and post-conference workshops, and other professional development activities held at various times of the year. TAIR also provides opportunities for information exchange through its newsletter, an electronic mail list serve, and a home page on the internet. TAIR is an affiliated group of the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) and the Southern Association for Institutional Research (SAIR)

National Center for Education Statistics

National Center for Education Statistics: https://nces.ed.gov/

NCES is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the U.S. and other nations and is located within the U.S. Department of Education and the Institute of Education Sciences. NCES fulfills a Congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze, and report complete statistics on the condition of American education; conduct and publish reports; and review and report on education activities internationally.

IPEDS Data Center

IPEDS Data Centerhttps://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/Home/

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), is a system of interrelated surveys conducted annually by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). IPEDS gathers information from every college, university, and technical and vocational institution that participates in the federal student financial aid programs. The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, requires that institutions that participate in federal student aid programs report data on enrollments, program completions, graduation rates, faculty and staff, finances, institutional prices, and student financial aid. These data are made available to students and parents through the College Navigator college search Web site and to researchers and others through the IPEDS Data Center

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Data Center

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Data Center: http://www.txhighereddata.org/      

TxHigherEdData.org is Texas’ primary source for statistics on higher education. The site contains reports, statistics, queries, interactive tools, and downloadable data, with links on enrollment and success, course and facilities inventories, interactive institutional locator maps, and degrees offered. Many data tables are available by race/ethnicity and gender. Higher education data on the site is submitted and certified by higher education institutions. Data sharing agreements with the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) allows for matching and tracking of students’ progress.

Legislative Budget Board (LBB)

Legislative Budget Board (LBB): https://www.lbb.texas.gov/

The Legislative Budget Board (LBB) is a permanent joint committee of the Texas Legislature that develops budget and policy recommendations for legislative appropriations, completes fiscal analyses for proposed legislation, and conducts evaluations and reviews to improve the efficiency and performance of state and local operations. Texas state agencies report on their performance using the Automated Budget and Evaluation System of Texas (ABEST). The Legislative Budget Board (LBB) uses ABEST to track agency requests for appropriations through the stages of the legislative appropriations process and agency performance through the biennial budget cycle.

Books and Journal Articles

Volkwein JF. The Foundations and Evolution of Institutional Research. New Dir High Educ. 2008;141:5-20.​  https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ791426

What is institutional research (IR)? One of the most widely definition of the institutional research is by Joe Saupe, who emphasized institutional research as a set of activities that support institutional planning, policy formation, and decision making. Institutional researchers and IR functions are embedded in the offices of strategic planning, institutional management, assessment, evaluation, budget analysis, enrollment management, enrollment research, and planning. In this article, the author takes a look at how the role of IR has changed over time and distinguishes the differences among the five faces of institutional research.

Middaugh, MF, Trusheim, DW, & Bauer, KW. Strategies for the practice of institutional research: Concepts, resources, and applications. Association for Institutional Research; 1994.https://www.airweb.org/docs/default-source/documents-for-pages/reports-and-publications/strategies-for-the-practice-of-ir.pdf?sfvrsn=d8f32b12_2

Increasing demands for institutional accountability have created new pressures on colleges and universities to provide information in a systematic, timely, and thorough fashion. This book aims to provide a conceptual and practical framework for the practice of data/information collection and analysis. While intended to assist practitioners in the field of institutional research, the book was also written with a larger audience in mind.

Zimmer B. Achieving quality within funding constraints: the potential contribution of institutional research. Journal of Institutional Research. May 1995; Vol 4; 74-82.​ http://hdl.voced.edu.au/10707/146829

Faced with an escalating number of competing demands on limited public funds, governments are giving more attention to achieving greater effectiveness and efficiency in the allocation and use of resources, as well as to maximizing the achievement of goals and policies to which they assign high priority. Such an operating environment has made the achievement of quality within funding constraints a crucial imperative for institutions of tertiary education. Institutional strategies for improving quality and the benefits of institutional research are both examined in this paper.

Association for Institutional Research. Duties and Functions of Institutional Research. eAIR; January 2017.​  https://www.airweb.org/ir-data-professional-overview/duties-and-functions-of-institutional-research

In today’s economy, where data and information are valued and those who assist organizations in utilizing these data and information to make informed decisions are seen as assets, the field of IR looks to continue its importance in higher education institutions, systems, and organizations. The list of Duties & Functions of Institutional Research was developed by AIR, with input from members, to continue the process of defining the function of IR to explain and assess our work.