Data Use in the Community College

American community colleges represent a true success story. Withtheir multiple missions, they have provided access and opportunityto millions of students. But community colleges are heldaccountable for their services and must be able to show that theyare indeed serving their variety of students appropriately.This volume speaks of the multiplicity of data required to tellthe community college story. The authors explore and detail howvarious sources--workforce data, market data, state-leveldata, federal data, and, of course, institutional data such astranscript files--all have something to say about the life ofa community college. Much like an orchestral score, where thedifferent parts played by individual instruments become music underthe hands of a conductor, these data can be coordinated andassembled into a message that answers questions of student successand institutional effectiveness.This is the 153rd volume of this Jossey-Bassquarterly report series. Always timely and comprehensive, NewDirections for Institutional Research provides planners andadministrators in all types of academic institutions withguidelines in such areas as resource coordination, informationanalysis, program evaluation, and institutional management.