Turning Knowledge Into Action: What's Data Got to Do With It?

Community college leaders face constant challenges in terms of state budget cuts, changing demographics, and the demand to accommodate student populations with a wide variety of learning styles, goals, and needs. At the same time, the accountability movement that has spread across the United States has put additional pressure on higher education institutions to provide reliable information about results in higher education. Community colleges, which have been particularly hard hit, are constantly seeking new and innovative ways to mobilize their resources in order to develop successful strategies for people who do not meet traditional college student characteristics. Turning Knowledge Into Action is based on interviews with over 65 community college top-level administrators. The book shows how community colleges are facing challenges in their efforts to collect data on student performance, to analyze it effectively, and then to share it in meaningful ways that lead to proactive decision making about investments in such programs and services as targeting remedial assistance to those who need it, matching course availability with student demand, and providing better consumer information for prospective students and other important constituents. Chapters in this thought-provoking book address topics such as the impact of external demands on the use of information, supporting student learning, and institutional research in the age of information.