Projects
Research studies
- Lumina Foundation Study of Noncredit Course Activity
- Funded through the University of Virginia by the Lumina Foundation, HigherEd.org staff conducted a two-year national study of noncredit course activity. This work has included an examination of ways that non-redit data are collected and stored in administrative information systems at the institution level, as well as various state, national and association organizations. Data were collected online with email and phone follow up with a sample of all Title IV schools. A total of 1,262 schools supplied data for a 60% response rate. The results were published in a New Directions for Higher Education monograph (Milam, 2005).
- IPEDS Training
- Working with National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) staff as part of a training grant to the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), HigherEd.org has worked to document effective practices in responding to the human resource-related IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System) surveys. Issues examined included how data are extracted, cleansed, and reviewed internally at institutions to provide accurate human resource data for the Staff, Faculty Salary, and Employee by Assigned Position surveys. A document entitled "Effective Practices for IPEDS HR Reporting" was developed and presented at the IPEDS "Train the Trainer" conference in July, 2003 and at the 2004 SHEEO/NCES Network Conference meeting. Dr. John Milam and HigherEd.org have offered numerous workshops at the AIR Forum, the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and regional and state AIR conferences about using national datasets for postsecondary research about faculty.
- National Study of Faculty Availability/Utilization
- There is little information available to guide affirmative action officers, administrators, and faculty search committees in their understanding of statistics for faculty hiring. The National Study of Faculty Availability and Utilization was conducted in 1995-96 to provide this kind of support, with an integrated series of research projects. The activities of the National Study, which was funded by George Mason University, included:
- a synthesis of the literature, including interviews with key informants about the knowledge base
- a national survey about how institutions develop faculty hiring statistics
- the analysis of existing national datasets
- an investigation into the federal agencies responsible for monitoring faculty hiring
- the development of new benchmarks for faculty hiring; (6) the development of datasets for understanding disciplinary differences in faculty availability
- the collection of affirmative action plans for case studies of "good practice" in the use of faculty hiring data
Other project areas:
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