This collection contains 17 boxes of reports from the Office of Institutional Research and Reporting.

The focus of this volume is on the work of Institutional Researchers in a small college or university (SCUs) setting. At an SCU, the goal of the IR office is to balance the bureaucratic tendencies of data-driven decision making with the need for collegiality and collaboration. Drawing on numerous examples, it illustrates how IR professionals can leverage their positionality within the institution to design data flows to answer questions by serving as convergent thinkers, connecting disjointed systems and requests. This volume: identifies the challenges that small IR offices face reinforces the idea of collegiality as a defining feature of small IR offices discusses several principles for using data about teaching and learning explores the effects of low response rates in survey data and the effects of nonresponse bias demonstrates the importance of collaborative efforts in enacting change proposes a model of policy development focused on student success presents an effective model of SCU IR office development This is the 173rd volume of this Jossey-Bass quarterly report series. Timely and comprehensive, New Directions for Institutional Research provides planners and administrators in all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areas as resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.

Expanding the understanding of the nature of institutional research, this volume documents alternative ways that it is currently being carried out beyond the confines of a traditional campus-based IR office. Chapters show how institutional research is being conducted by public university system offices, state higher education coordinating boards, institutional-affiliated research offices, and higher education consultants. Chapter topics discussed include: Developing a Statewide Student Tracking Tool The Role of Consultants in Institutional Research Collaborating on State-Level Institutional Research in New Hampshire: NH Paper Using College Board Data to Examine Trends in New Hampshire's College-Bound Students Virginia Improves Teaching and Learning (VITAL): A Comprehensive Statewide Data System for Teacher Quality Confronting Ambiguity, Anarchy, and Crisis in Insitutional Research: Using Student Unit Record Databases in Extra-Institutional Research. Because these entities often do not have ready access to campus-specific data, they must be creative in finding ways to obtain data and information that enable them to provide a value-added function in the field. The chapter authors high-light ways in which these offices acquire and use information for institutional research. This is the 139th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Institutional Research. Always timely and comprehensive, New Directions for Institutional Research provides planners and administrators in all types of academic institutions with guidelines in such areas as resource coordination, information analysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.