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Executive Summary
The Indiana Project for Improving Academic Success (IPAS) will
develop a research-based approach to improving enrollment, transfer,
and retention of college students in Indiana. The three-year project
will involve collaborating with the Indiana Commission for Higher
Education (ICHE) on the development of databases that will support
campus-level assessments of critical challenges and evaluative research
on the impact of campus-based interventions.
More than twelve partner campuses in the state of Indiana have
been invited to collaborate on inquiry-based reforms. The IPAS team
will use a collaborative approach to work with campus teams composed
of key administrators and faculty. Workshops will be used to introduce
new methods, then members of the IPAS team will work with members
of the campus teams to identify and remedy critical challenges.
- At the first workshop (February 2004), the IPAS team will disseminate
baseline research on the status of enrollment, retention, and
transfer that identifies factors that contribute to these outcomes
on each campus. As a follow up, each campus will identify a few
(2-4) critical challenges they will address during the project.
- At the second and third workshops (May and September 2004),
the IPAS team will introduce the action-inquiry process that campuses
will use to address critical challenges, as well as provide technical
assistance with action planning and evaluation design.
The IPAS team will provide ongoing technical support to partner
campuses, supporting their efforts to address critical challenges
related to enrollment, transfer, and retention.
- Project staff and graduate students will collaborate with campus
teams to develop action plans for addressing two to four critical
challenges on each campus.
- Project staff will work with work with institutional research
offices on the campuses to build develop appropriate methods of
evaluating interventions, working with the ICHE Student Information
System (SIS) and campus databases as appropriate.
- Annual meetings will be conducted in Spring 2005 and Spring
2006 to provide opportunities for the campuses to share their
experiences and learn from each other.
Through collaboration with the partner campuses and the ICHE, a
database will be developed that will be used to evaluate the impact
of interventions on enrollment, transfer, and retention. The IPAS
team will work with national organizations, including the Association
for Institutional Research and the College Board, to find appropriate
means of disseminating the methodologies tested in the project.
In addition, during the spring of 2006 the IPAS team will work with
campus officials and the ICHE to develop strategies to sustain an
academic improvement process in Indiana after the grant period.
This project will develop replicable methods for academic reform
using a systematic research-based approach to improving student
academic success. The methodology focuses on marshalling institutional
resources to address critical challenges related to enrollment,
transfer, and retention. The IPAS team will collaborate with members
of the advisory panel to build linkages to the College Board and
the Association of Institutional Research that will encourage dissemination
of findings and replication of the reform process.
VIsit the IPAS web site. |
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