Achieving the Dream
Institutional Research Resources
Data Coach: Each participating ATD college is assigned a data coach. Your data coach is
Laurie Heacock. Achieving the Dream data coaches guide colleges in the development,
analysis and use of student outcomes data to inform their improvement efforts. Primary
among their goals is to ensure that colleges have sufficient capacity to produce appropriate
student performance and completion data to support an institutional practice of using data to
inform decision-making and guide improvement efforts. Data coaches advise colleges during
site visits, phone calls, and email correspondence and are especially engaged with institutional
research and effectiveness staff, the data team, and intervention teams. In partnership with
leadership coaches, these professionals help colleges cultivate a culture of inquiry and
evidence to support a continuous cycle of improvement.
Data coaches guide colleges to:
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Develop adequate IR and IT capacity to support the college’s student outcomes data
and information needs
Prepare baseline disaggregated, longitudinal student cohort data for all five Achieving
the Dream success indicators and update it routinely
Analyze cohort and other types of data to diagnose academic deficits, leakage points,
and performance gaps among student groups
Develop an effective Data Team to support and inform the Core Team in guiding the
college’s Achieving the Dream improvement efforts
Prepare simplified, concise data tables, graphs, data briefs, scorecards, dashboards, and
research reports to promote college wide accessibility
Conduct survey and qualitative analyses, including focus groups with students, staff,
and community groups
Identify appropriate groups and key measures for benchmarking efforts
Develop evidence-based student success improvement plans, including targeted
improvement goals, scaling timelines, and appropriate evaluation measures
Conduct both formative and summative assessment of interventions
Develop a logic-model and comprehensive evaluation plan to track and measure
intervention results
Analyze, synthesize, and present student outcomes data in ways that tell “stories”
about student success, progression, and completion
Align accreditation, strategic planning, budgeting, and other student success initiatives
with Achieving the Dream improvement goals and corresponding data generation
efforts
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Conduct Data Summits and other meetings to engage the broader college in courageous
conversations about poor student outcomes and performance gaps among groups
Establish an institutional culture of using data to inform decision-making and resource
allocation to improve student outcomes
Data coaches assess a college’s data and analysis capacity annually. They provide earnest
advice about unmet data needs and capacity deficits, and provide specifically tailored
recommendations to keep colleges on track. While they do not perform the work, they support
colleges in a professional, collaborative manner that is responsive, yet sensitive to each
college’s unique environment.
Laurie will make four site visits to your college during your first year of participation and is
also available to work with your remotely. You can contact Laurie by phone (410)608-1275,
email: LTHeacock@gmail.com or by fax (518)338-0173.
2012 Cohort Dreamfolio:
The Dreamfolio centralizes important information for your first, second and third years in
Achieving the Dream including:
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Critical Dates and Deadlines
Expectations of Colleges Participating in Achieving the Dream
Tips for Launching Achieving the Dream on campus
Implementation Proposal Guidelines
Annual Reporting Guidelines
Data Submission Guidelines
DREAM Proposal Guidelines
Leader College Materials
Access the Dreamfolio at http://www.achievingthedream.org/2012_cohort_dreamfolio
Institutional Research Solution for 2012 ATD Cohort Colleges: The Center for Applied
Research (CFAR) at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) has been helping
community colleges by increasing institutional research capacity through a solution using SAS
and data extractions from the home institution. This new process is being offered to the 2012
Achieving the Dream cohort of colleges. The solution involves the following:
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Working with college IR/IT staff to extract a comprehensive flat text file that will be run
periodically (based on college calendar) and saved as a common data set.
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Each flat file will be run through a SAS dataset creation program and saved in a data
mart at each college. Each college will have a data mart set up within their IR
department.
Hundreds of prewritten programs will be provided that can be run against the frozen
data sets for purpose of analysis.
The installation of a SAS institutional research package including Enterprise Guide
(point and click).
Basic training to connect the SAS programs to the correct data files. Additional training
available at a 50 percent discount, online and in most major cities.
An online resource (Cloud environment) for all ATD colleges that will allow for
networking, interaction between colleges, trouble shooting, sharing or programs and
solutions.
Ongoing support and training for ATD IR staff.
The intended benefits of the IR Solution are to:
 Produce the data extract for submission to JBL/ATD National Database
 Provide colleges a resident data mart for ad hoc query and intervention coding
 Develop enhanced IR capacity and build data retrieval and analysis skills
 Provide a one person IR office the capacity of several people
 Help produce data for decision-making
 Help shorten the production time for compliance related activities, including state,
federal and institutional reporting.
CFAR will work closely with you as you develop your own data extraction processes and
provide assistance in any way possible during the process. CFAR has developed a list of
FAQs. If you have any questions, please contact one of the following people at and they will be
happy to help you.
Bobbie Frye
Director, Institutional Research
Bobbie.frye@cpcc.edu
(704) 330-6459
Paul Earls
Research Analyst
paul.earls@cpcc.edu
(704) 330-6399
Jason Temples
Research Analyst
Jason.temples@pcc.edu
(704) 330-6382
The National Database:
In addition to analyzing data from institutional systems, participating colleges contribute data
to a longitudinal (multi-year) national database. The National Database provides a
mechanism to collect data on cohorts of students attending a participating Achieving the
Dream college for the first time. Only students who seek a credential (a degree or a certificate)
are tracked. Unlike the Department of Education database, IPEDS, the National Database
tracks both full-time and part-time students.
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Each fall, participating colleges provide student record data (with unique, non-Social-Security
Number identifiers) on new cohorts of entering students as well as data on prior year
cohorts. The National Database includes the following data elements:
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Demographic data – sex, age and race/ethnicity;
Zip code – to create a proxy for socioeconomic status;
Academic preparation (if available) – high school diploma, GED or other; date of receipt
of high school degree; admission test result; remediation referral status; previous
college credits transferred; previous postsecondary degree or certificate;
Student performance – number of credits enrolled and completed each semester,
developmental education enrollment and completion each semester, gateway course
enrollment and completion each semester (e.g., college algebra or college English) and
grades each semester in developmental education and gateway courses;
Financial aid – application and receipt status first semester only, total amount of grant
aid and loan aid by source each semester;
Outcomes – degree or certificate attainment, transferred to other college
The data collected in the National Database emphasize key measures of student success –
outcomes in developmental courses, outcomes in gatekeeper courses, persistence, and
graduation. Student outcomes can be further analyzed by race, ethnicity, and other student
characteristics.
Research using the National Database:
The National Database contains more than 1.5 million student records submitted by Achieving
the Dream Colleges. The database is used for research by two partners of Achieving the
Dream, JBL Associates and the Community College Research Center.
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JBL Associates uses the National Database to produce a bi-monthly newsletter called
“Data Notes.” Each Data Note, JBL Associates focuses on a topic related to student
outcomes at the Achieving the Dream Colleges. Your college’s companion data for Data
Notes will be available via the Dream Web Submission site
www.dreamwebsubmission.org under the Reports tab/Data Notes. Your contact at JBL
Associates is Mason Erwin (301) 654-5154, merwin@jblassoc.com.
Community College Research Center (CCRC) uses the National Database for research
projects focused on community college issues including access and equity; the high
school-to-college transition; institutional mission and governance; programs and
practice; and workforce education.
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Links to ATD Principles and Practices Guides:
Using Achieving the Dream to Meet Accreditation Requirements
Strengthening Institutional Research and Information Technology Capacity through Achieving
the Dream
Engaging Faculty in Achieving the Dream
Basics of Longitudinal Cohort Analysis
Evaluating Student Success Interventions
Using Data to Increase Student Success: A Focus on Diagnosis
Suggested Data Team Members:
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IR/IE Director
Senior planning administrator
Information technology representative
Faculty, especially those who teach developmental English, reading and math and those
who teach gatekeeper and other key courses
Inclusion/Diversity/Cultural Awareness staff member(s)
Student services staff, esp. advising and testing
Students may also be members of the data team
Data Team Responsibilities:
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Develop a candid analysis of the college’s performance with respect to student
outcomes, with a special focus on low-income students, students of color and others
who face barriers to success.
Examine quantitative and qualitative data and present findings in a clear and
compelling way that shows where the college is doing well and where it needs to
improve.
Seek involvement of students and faculty to identify strengths and weaknesses of
current college policies, structures and services.
Aid the core team in engaging students, faculty, community members and others in
dialogue about the analysis and proposed goals and strategies
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Suggested Discussion Questions Regarding Your Student Success Data:
1. What is the data showing about our college’s progress?
2. What surprised us about these data? Why?
3. What achievement gaps exist among racial and ethnic groups?
4. What issues should we explore further?
5. How should these data impact our institutional priorities?
6. Who should we be discussing these data with on campus and in the community? When
and how should we do this?
7. What can we do to help more students be successful?
8. What will it take to see more dramatic improvement in student outcomes?
AIR Data and Decisions Academy:
The Data and Decisions Academy is a series of online, self-paced courses designed for busy
community college institutional research (IR) professionals.
The Academy offers six courses for individuals: Foundational Statistics for Decision Support,
Foundations of Data Management, Designing IR Research, Survey Design, Learning
Outcomes, and Longitudinal Tracking for IR.
A team-based course, Student Success Through the Lens of Data, is also available. This course
examines the effective uses of data to improve student success and is designed for a team of 35 administrators. The course uses examples of student success indicators and interventions
drawn from Achieving the Dream For more information on these courses visit:
www.airweb.org/academy. Please note that presidential scholarships will be available for
2013. The purpose of the scholarships is to help colleges build IR capacity by providing
practical IR skills to support data informed decision-making. For more information visit:
http://academy.airweb.org/scholarships/
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