Included below are some insights gained from our most recent 60 Second Surveys. The full reports are posted to the research page. If you have any topics you wish to see addressed in the 60 Second Survey format, please send your ideas to Wendy Kilgore, Director of Research research@aacrao.org.
FERPA training Practices – January 2016
- Almost three-quarters require FERPA training for all new hires who work with student records.
- One third require FERPA refresher training on a regular and recurring basis.
- In-person training is the most common format.
- Twenty-six percent (26%) provide FERPA training to parents, and most of that training is offered in person.
- The registrar is the position most often primarily responsible for FERPA training.
Curriculum Management Practices – February 2016
- Less than 10% of respondents have a “stand-alone” curriculum office (i.e., an office that is a separate unit as compared to a function that is contained within another office or spread across multiple offices) and these offices typically employ 1-3 full-time-equivalent employees.
- About a third reported offering between 25-74 different academic programs (majors, minors, certificates, specializations, graduate programs).
- Almost three-quarters use some type of technology to support the academic catalog.
- Most only allow program/degree changes to be made effective just once per calendar year; less than half apply the same limitation to course changes.
Building a SEM Analytics Reporting Portfolio
The upcoming edition of SEMQ will include an AACRAO co-authored article designed to help college and university enrollment professionals initiate a SEM analytics reporting portfolio that focuses on shifting the attention of reporting systems from transactional data gathering to shared performance understandings.
Upcoming AACRAO Research Initiatives
The March 2016 60 Second Survey will take a look at the career paths of our members. April’s will be a touch point update on Competency based education in cooperation with the Competency Based Education Network. We are also wrapping up a joint project with Lexmark on electronic content management use and student records management practices. The results of this project will be released at the annual conference in Phoenix. Future research includes a focus on student success initiatives, a report on the career paths of directors of admissions mirroring the registrar and chief enrollment officer career path reports. We are also working on developing a web-based assessment of the AACRAO admissions competencies and proficiencies. This assessment will be piloted as part of a workshop at the annual conference in Phoenix.
Higher Education Research
Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education – Feb. 1, 2016 Update
The 2015 classification update was officially released on Feb. 1, 2016. As summarized in the update, changes between the 2015 and 2010 additions include a change to the Basic classification specifically for Associate’s Colleges, new category labels for Doctoral Universities and others.
Turning the Tide: Inspiring Concern for Other and the Common Good through College Admissions
The Harvard Making Caring Common Project released a report this January which asserts that the “college admissions process is powerfully positioned to send different messages that help young people become more generous and humane in ways that benefit not only society but student themselves”. The report offers recommendations for reshaping the admissions process to address this position.
Tracking Transfer: New Measures of Institutional and State Effectiveness in Helping Community Colleges Attain Bachelor’s Degrees
The Aspen Institute and the Community College Research Center released a January 2016 report proposing “a common set of metrics” to measure the effectiveness of institutional initiatives to help community college student complete bachelor’s degrees.
First Year Experience Courses for Students In Developmental Education
A February 2015 U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES) report from the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) which determined that these programs “have no discernible effect” on the success of this student population.