Growing costs, reduced public confidence, and eroding state support for higher education are among the reasons for increased concern over accountability, quality, and productivity within academe. Internal and external pressures calling for the assessment of college student learning and development have been joined by concerns over the effectiveness of administrative offices and functions. Institutional researchers across the country are therefore engaged in a wide variety of activities about their colleges and systems including, but not limited to, compliance reporting, persistence, enrollment management, student impacts, faculty productivity, faculty salaries, peer institutions, diversity, environmental scanning, program review, cost analysis, information management, planning and policy analysis.
 

At the Connecticut Community Colleges, the majority of assessment activities take place, as they should, within individual colleges and departments. At the same time, given that we are a system, there are some assessment activities that are appropriate to do in common, providing useful information for the general public, faculty, departments, colleges, system, state, federal and other constituencies. To this end, and because of the diligence of the Institutional Research professionals within our system, the Connecticut Community Colleges are developing a common base to assess student development, experiences and learning at various stages of a student’s community college affiliation.