News Release
December 01, 2005
Lumina Foundation report can help community colleges better serve their students
INDIANAPOLIS — New research released today by Lumina Foundation for Education explores how community colleges can best use data to improve their service to students.The report, Data Don’t Drive: Building a Practitioner-Driven Culture of Inquiry to Assess Community College Performance, written by Alicia Dowd, assistant professor, the University of Massachusetts Boston, explores a range of data-based benchmarking practices. In examining these various practices, Dowd builds a compelling case, not merely for data-driven decisions, but for decisions based on thoughtful interpretation and use of data by well-informed and well-supported practitioners at the nation’s community colleges.
The report also attempts to gauge the practical value of these various methods by assessing their capacity to truly inform understanding of institutional productivity and effectiveness in serving students.
The report reiterates two crucial issues for all who are engaged in the important work of enhancing student success. First, reliable data must guide decisions about what types of services are offered to students. Dowd suggests that only by collecting and properly analyzing sufficient information can educators and administrators identify areas of greatest need and implement the most effective steps to meet those needs. Second, people charged with collecting, analyzing and using the data must have the expertise and the resources to do their jobs effectively.
“At Lumina Foundation, we strongly support the need for creating the ‘culture of inquiry’ to which Dowd refers,” said Martha D. Lamkin, Lumina Foundation president and CEO. “In fact, the creation of such a culture is a central tenet of one of our major initiatives, Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count."
Achieving the Dream is a multiyear, multimillion-dollar initiative to help more community college students succeed. The initiative — which involved 10 national partner organizations and is now at work on the campuses of 35 community colleges in seven states — works on multiple fronts and emphasizes the use of data to drive change. For more information on Achieving the Dream, visit the Web site: www.achievingthedream.org.
The full report — Data Don’t Drive: Building a Practitioner-Driven Culture of Inquiry to Assess Community College Performance — is available at: http://www.luminafoundation.org/publications/datadontdrive2005.pdf.
Lumina Foundation for Education, an Indianapolis-based, private, independent foundation, strives to help people achieve their potential by expanding access and success in education beyond high school. Through grants for research, innovation, communication, and evaluation, as well as policy education and leadership development, Lumina Foundation addresses issues that affect access and educational attainment among all students, particularly underserved student groups, including adult learners. The Foundation bases its mission on the belief that postsecondary education remains one of the most beneficial investments that individuals can make in them, and that society can make in its people.
