About Us

The Kirkwood Community College Office of Institutional Research exists to support the college, students, and community stakeholders by providing accurate data, statistics, and analysis to inform educated decisions.

Our Mission

Inform decisions that advance the college’s mission, vision, values, and strategic initiatives through the collaborative creation and stewardship of knowledge.

• Our team has adopted the AIR Statement of Aspirational Practice for Institutional Research.

Services

1. Compliance Reporting - The Compliance Reporting Team, which includes members of Institutional Research and Reporting Services (IT), conducts annual reports, including state MIS reporting, federal IPEDS reporting, Higher Learning Commission accreditation reporting, and other types of required reporting. 
2. Benchmarking and Trend Tracking - Using compliance reporting and other information, we conduct benchmarking and trend tracking of Kirkwood’s performance in a range of domains. In addition, Kirkwood participates annually in the National Community College Benchmarking Project (NCCBP) and the Voluntary Framework of Accountability (VFA).
3. Surveying Stakeholders - We survey a variety of stakeholders each year, including current students, students who are about to graduate, students who have graduated, students who have left without graduating, and members of advisory committees. Additional surveys are conducted as needed.
4. Action Research - In collaboration with stakeholders, we support student success through research on interventions and other institutional operations. In general, action research is ad hoc in nature and may employ quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methodologies.
5. Protection of Human Research Subjects (Institutional Review Board) - Kirkwood’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) is facilitated by Institutional Research to protect human research subjects. This includes supporting research conducted by external entities that have been approved through Kirkwood’s IRB process. 
6. Data Governance - Collaborating across the institution, we maintain accountability to standards and practices for management of data and information, raise awareness of associated risks, and contribute to shared institutional understanding through integration into daily operations.

Office of Institutional Research

1154 Linn Hall

319-398-7116

ir@kirkwood.edu

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