IHE gets $1.6 million grant to help community colleges improve data use
UF’s Institute of Higher Education has been awarded a $1.6 million grant from Lumina Foundation for Education for an innovative program that will teach community college administrators to make better use of the data they collect on student achievement.
“The University of Florida has a reputation for excellence and innovation with respect to community colleges,” said Professor Linda Serra Hagedorn, chair of the Department of Educational Administration and Policy and director of IHE. “Lumina is expressing its trust that we will continue the excellence while at the same time expanding our current services to community colleges.”
IHE is developing an online education program that will show community college institutional research officers – the people responsible for collecting data on enrollment, retention and student demographics – how to use their data to create policies to help students become more academically successful.
“Community colleges across the country are collecting data to report to their funders – the various state legislatures – but they often aren’t using their data to its fullest extent,” said Christopher Coogan, associate director of IHE. “In addition to using their data to report progress to outside agencies, they could be using the same numbers to spot problems and address them before they grow.”
Coogan offered the example of an institution that collects demographic data on entering students, and then tracks those same students over the next two years to evaluate their progress and measure retention and success rates. At the end of the two years, the school might identify a high dropout rate among a certain demographic group – say, Hispanic males whose fathers didn’t finish high school. By collecting and using data more creatively, Coogan said, the community college could have spotted the at–risk group and developed a program to help them.
The IHE grant is part of Achieving the Dream, a multiyear national initiative to help more community college students succeed. The initiative is particularly concerned about student groups that have faced the most significant barriers to success, including low-income students and students of color. Achieving the Dream acts on multiple fronts, including efforts at community colleges and in research, public engagement and public policy. The initiative currently includes 58 colleges in nine states (55 community colleges and three open-admission, four-year institutions). Lumina Foundation, a private, Indianapolis-based non-profit dedicated to expanding access to postsecondary education across the country, is a major funder of Achieving the Dream.
The IHE distance education program will help institutional researchers perform their jobs more effectively by allowing them to elect specific educational modules that fill “learning gaps.” Coogan said the program will stand out from others because it is “asynchronous” – not tied to a regular school year.
“If a community college hires you as an Institutional Researcher on Oct. 5, you can start the program Oct. 6 if you want,” he said.
While other universities have established programs to teach IR officers in higher education, UF’s will be the first aimed specifically at community college staff. The IHE project will also be the first IR program to be offered completely online.
