Research and Institutional Effectiveness

The Office of Research and Institutional Effectiveness Office provides timely and accurate data and information designed to meet the needs of the institution and provides guidance for the institutional effectiveness process.

Objectives of the office:

  • To continue the development and integration of institutional effectiveness into the daily process of each KC unit.
  • To provide information to meet the needs of all the areas of the College for operational and strategic planning.

Data Integrity Statement:

The Office of Research and Institutional Effectiveness provides timely and accurate data and information designed to meet the needs of the institution and provides guidance for the institutional effectiveness process.  The office pledges to:

  • Approach all research objectively with an unbiased attitude
  • Strive to achieve accuracy in all activities
  • Use accepted technical standards of the institutional research profession
  • Provide complete data with no intentional omissions of relevant information
  • Protect confidentiality
  • Ensure, to the best of our ability, that data utilized from secondary sources is accurate 

The RIE Office provides the following data and services:

  • Student enrollment statistics
  • Graduation statistics
  • Course statistics
  • Grade distributions
  • Transfer statistics
  • Strategic planning data
  • QEP data
  • Program review data
  • Retention statistics
  • Faculty statistics
  • Financial aid statistics
  • Grant application statistics
  • Survey creation/process/analysis
  • Instructor evaluation administration/analysis
  • Annual Improvement Plan (AIP) information/assessment/consulting

Most documents are in pdf format.  To read a pdf file you will need a program like Adobe Acrobat Reader:

Research and Institutional Effectiveness

Achieving the Dream

KC selected to join ‘Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count’:

Signifying a commitment to student success and institutional improvement, Kilgore College, along with 26 other colleges from seven states and the District of Columbia have joined “Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count”, and will begin work to identify new strategies to improve student success, close achievement gaps and increase retention, persistence and completion rates.

What is Achieving the Dream?

Kilgore College is part of a national organization to help more community college students - particularly low-income students and students of color - succeed. These students come to us with high hopes, but too many leave without completing the courses they take, earning certificates or earning degrees. We want to learn what we can do as an institution to change that.

What exactly is Kilgore College doing?

We are tracking the progress of students as they move through classes to see where they are successful and where they are not. This means we are using the data we have more intentionally and, in some cases, gathering new data to help us better understand what keeps students on our campus and what causes them to leave.

Using data to help close performance gaps...

Achieving the Dream focuses on measurable outcomes, particularly closing achievement gaps. Because there are disparities in student outcomes at community colleges, Achieving the Dream colleges are disaggregating student achievement data — breaking it down by race, age and other demographic characteristics — to better understand and begin to close performance gaps.

ATD Official Website

KC Fact Book

2017-18:

2016-17:

Strategic Plan

View the Kilgore College Strategic Plan for 2016-19

Data - KC Data

KC Assessment Data Reports:

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):

The purpose of the KPI report is to illustrate to the campus community and the general public how Kilgore College measures its success in addressing the four key parts of its mission statement:  access, success, completion, and partnerships.  Some items have targets and are highlighted in green if improvement was made from the prior year or the target was met.  Items and targets are determined by KC administrators and the Research and Institutional Effectiveness Committee, comprised of a representative group of faculty, staff, and administrators from across the institution.  Items and targets are reviewed on a yearly basis.  Data is compiled and maintained by the Office of Research and Institutional Effectiveness.

View the KPIs for 2017-18 (pdf)

KC Balanced Scorecards:

The purpose of the Balanced Scorecard is to illustrate to the campus community and the general public how Kilgore College measures its success in meeting its mission.  Items and targets are determined by the Research and Institutional Effectiveness Committee, comprised of a representative group of faculty, staff, and administrators from across the institution.  The scorecard is reviewed annually by this group.  Data is compiled and maintained by the Office of Research and Institutional Effectiveness. The Balanced Scorecard was discontinued after the 2015-2016 year.

Accreditation

Visit the Accreditation webpage.

Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP)

Visit the QEP webpage.

KC - Student Achievement

Student Achievement data is presented to inform prospective students, parents, stakeholders and other interested parties about the success of KC students in meeting specific achievement targets.  Items highlighted in green indicate improvement from the prior year or that the target was met. Items and targets are determined by KC administrators and the Research and Institutional Effectiveness Committee, comprised of a representative group of faculty, staff, and administrators from across the institution.  Data is compiled and maintained by the Office of Research and Institutional Effectiveness.

Balanced Scorecard of Student Achievement 2017-18:

PDF of Student Achievement Data Above

Kilgore College Institutional Review Board (IRB)

Research is a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.  Generalizable knowledge typically indicates that the results will be included in a thesis or dissertation, published, or presented at a conference.

Any activity meeting the definition of research above and that uses human subjects (i.e., human beings or data related to human beings) is subject to IRB approval.  This applies to both KC employees and outside entities seeking to use KC data for research purposes.

KC’s IRB will be formed from a subset of members of the Research & Institutional Effectiveness Committee on an ad-hoc basis, with the option of adding KC faculty and staff who may have necessary expertise.  Those seeking IRB approval must complete the IRB Approval Form, available upon request from the Vice President of Institutional Planning.

Activities exempt from IRB approval include the following:

  • Projects intended for quality assurance purposes, such as improvement of a program or service and outcomes will not be generalized for other programs, services, or organizations.  This includes research designed to judge the effectiveness of or the comparison of instructional techniques, curricula, or classroom management methods.
  • Research involving the use of educational tests (cognitive, diagnostic, aptitude, achievement), survey procedures, interview procedures or observation of public behavior.
  • Journalism assignments given with the intent to publish a newspaper article.
  • Academic assessment data (e.g., grades, coursework, surveys, interviews, etc.) used only to provide feedback to students or improve a course or program.
  • Data provided to accrediting agencies in order to present evidence of improvement of student learning.
  • Projects intended to meet course requirements with no intention to use the results for other purposes.
  • Course-related activities designed to provide opportunities to practice research methods (e.g., interview, observation and survey techniques; data analysis; research design) as long as the activities are limited in scope, present no more than minimal risk to participants, and do not lead to generalizable results.  Students working on such projects should ensure full disclosure about the purpose of the project and obtain consent from participants.
  • Research involving the collection or study of existing data, documents, or records if these sources are publicly available or if the information is recorded by the researcher in such a manner that subjects cannot be identified, directly or through identifiers linked to the subjects.

While the above activities may be exempt from IRB approval, those conducting such activities should exhibit every effort to minimize risk to students, including considering how students may feel when asked about certain issues and the potential for emotional distress or psychological disturbance.  It is recommended that classroom surveys include the option for students to choose “no response” or “does not apply”.  Further, survey responses should be anonymous.  It is also recommended that students be allowed to opt out of the activities that may cause emotional distress or psychological disturbance.  

Sources:  45 CFR Part 46; Cornell University; Evergreen State College

For information about Research and Institutional Effectiveness:

Dr. Staci Martin
Vice President, Institutional Planning
Phone:
(903) 983-8651
Office:
McLaurin Admin. Building (MCLRN), 209
smartin@kilgore.edu
Jane Lewis
Institutional Research Analyst
Research and Institutional Effectiveness
Phone:
(903) 983-8620
Office:
McLaurin Admin. Bldg., (MCLRN) 209
jalewis@kilgore.edu
Fred Peters
Title III Project Director & Grant Writer
Phone:
(903) 983-8289
Office:
McLaurin Admin. Bldg. (MCLRN), 209
fpeters@kilgore.edu
Karen Scibona
Executive Assistant and Research Data Specialist
Research and Institutional Effectiveness
Phone:
(903) 988-3702
Office:
McLaurin Admin. Bldg. (MCLRN), 209
kscibona@kilgore.edu

Offices & Services Offered