Institutional Research and Assessment (IRA)

Since its inception in January 1999, Institutional Research & Assessment (originally named Institutional Assessment & Accountability) is responsible for carrying out overall assessment and research and providing information for improvement, planning, and decision-making at the college. These responsibilities are performed by conducting institutional research and student assessment; evaluating college programs; monitoring personnel efficiency; disseminating information throughout the college, university and state; and serving as a general institutional data warehouse.

The Office develops and produces various semester and annual reports and publications, including the Medgar Evers College Snapshot, the Medgar Evers College Fact-book, and various informational monographs.

The Office communicates with the CUNY Institutional Research and Assessment Office to understand the computational aspects of the University’s requirements for evaluative measures, as well as to provide the College’s feedback. The Office participates in the College performance management process to study institutional effectiveness in meeting stated purposes, so the College can use the results to improve college programs, services, and facilities.

Another major responsibility of IRA is to create and administer institutional level surveys at various points of the student experience and conduct a college-wide assessment of student academic preparedness and progress. The Office further works with an array of academic departments to assess student performance and goals, and prepare for departmental reviews. The Office seeks to study institutional effectiveness in meeting stated purposes and use the results to improve university programs, services, and facilities.

The office is charged with two primary functions:

1. Institutional Assessment

2. Institutional Research

Institutional Assessment

The Office is responsible for the generation of trend data reports for the guiding framework of the MEC Assessment Plan, the “Student Success Progression Model”. Collaborating closely with administrative offices and academic departments, the Office also provides data support and suggests methodologies for departmental assessment and program reviews. These institutional data in turn guide the directions for the College’s in-depth effort on student learning assessment. Additionally, the Office conducts institutional level student and faculty surveys, and provides professional and technical support for surveys at the unit and departmental level.

Institutional Research

The Office serves to enhance the college’s capabilities in institutional research and provide support in outcomes assessment and departmental reviews. Specific responsibilities include preparing student, faculty and course information for the college Fact Book and Snapshots; producing and distributing departmental portraits (also see assessment function); responding to internal and external information requests; preparing routine and ad hoc statistical and narrative reports; processing student evaluation of teaching; preparing staff and teaching load reports; and serving as liaison to external constituencies. The Office works closely with the Central IRA Office to ensure data integrity of the “official data” routinely collected from various data sources and maintains a complex system of student tracking files.