{"id":1467,"date":"2016-06-27T18:51:56","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T18:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/?p=1467"},"modified":"2023-09-13T15:41:12","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T15:41:12","slug":"the-importance-of-ir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/?p=1467","title":{"rendered":"The Importance of IR"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone who is not yet convinced\u00a0about <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/?attachment_id=1468\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-1468\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-1468\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/scotus-150x150.png\" alt=\"Picture of first page of the Supreme Court decision document.\" width=\"233\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/scotus-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/scotus-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/scotus.png 464w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px\" \/><\/a>the importance of a strong institutional research office in supporting planning, assessment, and decision-making at colleges and universities today needs only to read Justice Anthony M. Kennedy&#8217;s 2016 opinion in the Fisher case on race-conscious admissions to understand:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">&#8220;The University now has at its disposal\u00a0valuable data about the manner in which different approaches to admissions may foster diversity or instead dilute it. The University must continue to use this data to scrutinize the fairness of its admissions program; to assess whether changing demographics have undermined the need for a race-conscious policy; and to identify the effects, both positive and negative, of the affirmative-action measures it deems necessary.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Our profession has evolved over the past 50 years, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.airweb.org\/AboutUs\/History\/Documents\/Papers-Books-Manuscripts\/TheAssociationforInstitutionalResearchTheFirst50Years.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">from <\/a>a handful of data wonks focused primarily on responding to external agencies&#8217; fledgling efforts to understand the increasingly complex higher education landscape, to internally focused analytic teams, indispensable\u00a0to institutional decision-making.<\/p>\n<p>An effective IR office uses its data infrastructure to provide <a href=\"http:\/\/www.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/fact-book\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">basic institutional information<\/a> to internal and external audiences, and then builds on that essential foundation, leveraging its expertise and perspective to provide meaningful research and analytics that illuminates\u00a0what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cs.swarthmore.edu\/~newhall\/papers\/sigcse14.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">is and isn&#8217;t working<\/a>, the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.swarthmore.edu\/news-events\/swarthmore-recognized-sustained-science-education-excellence\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">results of new initiatives<\/a>\u00a0to support students, general\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/alumni-outcomes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">educational outcomes<\/a>,\u00a0and future directions that may be\u00a0promising. \u00a0To fully support its institution the IR office must\u00a0go beyond providing reports on topics that\u00a0faculty and managers are interested in hearing about, and educate about what they\u00a0ought to know &#8211; whether or not it is what they want to hear. \u00a0This is essential for\u00a0evidence-based decision-making, differentiating effective institution from the rest.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anyone who is not yet convinced\u00a0about the importance of a strong institutional research office in supporting planning, assessment, and decision-making at colleges and universities today needs only to read Justice Anthony M. Kennedy&#8217;s 2016 opinion in the Fisher case on race-conscious admissions to understand: &#8220;The University now has at its disposal\u00a0valuable data about the manner &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/?p=1467\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Importance of IR<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1467"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1539,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1467\/revisions\/1539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}