Significant ethical scandals are thankfully rare in institutional research and effectiveness (IR/IE). Every few years brings a case of an institution that has deliberately falsified data, usually data for external survey...

Amid the election for our new AIR leaders, I think it is important as you contemplate who to vote for to reflect on the purpose of your vote. I fundamentally believe the leaders we choose are an image of our hope fo...

AIR talked to Mark Umbricht, Director of Data Analysis and Research at University of North Carolina System, to chat about how his 2018 AIR Forum session was referenced in Ron Lieber’s book, The Price You ...

Institutional Research (IR) professionals intimately understand that good data can facilitate smart decisions. That truth applies to the field of IR, too. The National Survey of IR Offices is the premier source of ...

Congratulations to the latest recipients of the Charles F. Elton Best Paper Award: Qingmin Shi, John R. Crooker, Christina Drum, and Brent M. Drake, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Their paper, “Investigation of t...

Back in fall 2006, I had barely started my career in the IR/IE field, and our oldest child was starting her first year in Governor’s School in Virginia. One of her assigned books was How to Lie with Statistics by...

Every day, more than 2.5 exabytes (1 exabyte = 1 billion gigabytes) of data are produced. By the end of 2025, estimates suggest that number will rise to 436 exabytes. Data is truly everywhere, and its use is expanding an...

As data stewards, we are responsible for ensuring the privacy and security of information we use and share. The AIR Statement of Ethical Principles outlines the integrity of our profession. An important area of our ...

The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our students, prospective students, faculty, and staff is not yet known. Institutional research professionals can help support a better understanding of this impact by first r...

The collection, analysis, and reporting of data in ethical ways has always been foundational for institutional research. Ethical research requires not only a high degree of veracity and accuracy in our work, but it als...

When the AIR Board approved the AIR Statement of Ethical Principles in September 2019, COVID-19 wasn't a blip on anyone's radar. Those were halcyon days, when the most popular dashboards tracked student success and enr...

We put a call out on the AIR Hub and Twitter for tips on making sure your work does not undermine the following of our Ethical Principles: "We provide accurate and contextualized information. We do not knowingly ...

A consistent theme in the reactions to the AIR Statement of Ethical Principles has been concern over the tension between what campus leaders want and what IR/IE practitioners see as the correct or ethical path. We ...

One of the foundational principles of our work in data and analytics is the ethical use of data. In the 2018 AIR National Survey of IR Offices, we asked Office Leaders to evaluate the statement, “Staff adhere to st...

Seven years, nine volumes, and 17 scholarly articles later, Sharron Ronco has retired from her role as editor of AIR Professional File, the association’s scholarly journal. In her volunteer role as editor, Sharro...

As higher education institutions continue to recover from challenges presented by the pandemic, they are forced to grapple with persistent nationwide enrollment declines as well as student perceptions regarding the value...

The leaders I admire most are the ones who are authentic in their values and show us the very best of humanity. Some leaders are elected, appointed, promoted, or even accidently anointed. But the leaders who seem to be c...

Abundant evidence documents that a college degree confers significant economic and non-economic value for individuals and society. Even so, there is a need to continue to improve methods and data sources to deepen analys...

Institutional researchers are experts at examining analytical patterns related to preparedness for college, access to admissions, enrollment, progress and retention, the learning experience, financial aid, gr...

Data literacy is the ability to read, work with, analyze, and communicate with data*. As data and analytics professionals, we depend on our stakeholders to have the necessary data literacy skills to consume and use the ...