RI Education Board Undocumented immigrant policy stirs controversy

Illegal immigration is a hot topic, one I don't feel like I know enough about to get close enough within the 10 foot pole rule to say anything about.  But then this week, my English professor at JWU, Professor Janice Taraborelli, gave us an assignment to choose an "issue of the day" to write about.  Since I am attempting to connect all of my coursework for all of my classes to my career in Institutional Research, suddenly I find myself with an issue to write about staring me in the face.  This week, the Rhode Island Education Board voted on a policy change to allow undocumented immigrants (otherwise termed "illegal aliens") who have gone to a Rhode Island high school for at least three years to pay in-state (rather than out-of-state) tuition at any state college or university.

The controversy crosses both sides of the political divide.  There are hard-core conservatives for this measure and left leaning liberals against, contrary to what one might initially speculate.  There is a lot of misinformation floating around out there, and anger about how this policy was adopted outside of legislation, which, opponents claim, is illegal policy change due to the fact that state schools are subsidized by taxpayers.  Governor Lincoln Chafee, a supporter of this policy change, claims that the measure will help undocumented citizens have access to education.  The policy does not come without conditions; to qualify, students must have gone to high school in Rhode Island for at least three years, be accepted by the institution, and initiate the process of citizenship when they become eligible.  Also, these students would not be qualified to receive federal or state financial aid.  Proponents claim that this will help the state as it will encourage more people to come to college here, thus our tuition revenues will increase.  Opponents claim that for every illegal citizen who goes to one of Rhode Island's public institutions at a reduced cost takes the place of a legal citizen, who, if from out of state, would have had to pay more, thereby nullifying the claim that there would be additional tuition revenue.

I have a lot of research to do on this subject before I can write my argumentative essay.  I am not even sure what my thesis statement will be.  However, it will be interesting to me as a researcher what the results of this policy change may be.  Will future bond issues be impacted by this, when angry voters vote no on school improvements? To be sure, there is plenty of anger surrounding this issue.

Three things...

When asked what are the three questions I would like to answer or that will help me focus and learn more about my job, I think back to what attracted me to the job in the first place.  These are things I still have yet to "crack" but would like to master within the next few years.

1.  The Common Data Set - it doesn't make sense to me that we are asked all of these similar (but not exactly the same) questions by all of these surveys, reporting entities and other institutions, and yet we don't have a singular database to contain all of this information.  Well, we do, somewhat, in IPEDS, but answers to IPEDS surveys don't always translate to other data collections.  Attempts have been made to create a template for containing the common data set, but there is no singular template by which all of the requesting entities and data collectors ask for data.  It's craziness to someone like me.  I want to develop something.  I am not sure what that something is, yet.  I need to learn more about this beast.  Meantime, I peck away at the excel spreadsheet template shared with me via the Common Data Set website, which is little more than a collective of shared suggestion.

2.  Alternative methods of surveying students - this one is easy.  Students today are saying ENOUGH ALREADY with the surveys.  We ask them about their high school experience.  Volunteer work.  Extracurricular time.  What they think of our dining services.  What they think of our faculty and coursework and facilities.  Whether they think they are in a diverse community.  About their drinking, smoking, nocturnal and other habits.  Do they drink coffee? Do they prefer the library to the lab? What do they think of the film festival? They are surveyed out.  Even incentives don't work any more, and student survey responses are going down.  This is a problem.  If we are to depend on surveys to collect data from our students, we are going to have to find creative ways to get this information from them without them running screaming in the other direction.

3.  Fostering communication - There is generally not a lot of trust between faculty and administration on most college campuses.  It's just the nature of the beast.  One of my bosses is the Budget Director at RISD.  One time, she was talking about integrity, and presenting in front of faculty.  She takes great pride in her work and likes to think that the faculty trust her, even though some of the data she presents to them comes from "the dark side" (the administration) a body which is never completely trusted.  This results in my boss having to be on the defensive from the get-go.  However, she is extremely detail oriented and presents her data very clearly.  To me, there is nothing more irritating than a question at the end of a presentation that has already been answered within the presentation itself, due to the fact that the questioner was so busy coming up with the question that s/he wasn't paying attention to the presentation at all.  To avoid prolonged irritation and potential political upheaval, it is my intention in this job to facilitate communication between administration and faculty.  I know.  It's a daunting task.  But if we keep giving them numbers that are indisputable, and somehow engage them through communications (with vehicles such as blogs like this), perhaps we can be even better at we do, with their help.  We are the external and internal reporters, but they are the teachers on the front line.  They know the students, they know the reality.  I want to see more than just the numbers and percentages.

So those are my three goals.

What's the Big Secret? Some UK Institutions reluctant to participate in studies for fear of negative exposure

Photo courtesy Regents College London, via creative commons

In an interesting opinion piece by Jack Grove in Times Higher Education (THE) - a journal published in the UK - today, entitled "You can't have it, it's private" talks about researchers finding it difficult to get data from some private higher ed institutions.  The reason, academics say, is that institutions fear negative exposure the data might reveal.  It is interesting because here in the US, institutions are required to provide data to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (whether that information looks negative or not) and optionally may provide information to national publications or college guides for public relations purposes.  Being required to provided accurate data to NCES almost makes it impossible if not inadvisable to provide inaccurate or misleading data to ratings guides or journals, as it is easy enough to check data against what is provided to NCES.  However, an institution's wariness of the public's reception of such data is well founded, as often the rankings publications do not tell the whole story.  Just this Spring, US News and World Report released their 2011 college cost rankings, in which some private higher ed institutions were made to look like a terrible tuition deal, because taken out of context, costs were presented without deeper explanation.  In the report, for example, Bowdoin College rates as one of the most expensive colleges to attend, but the reality is, Bowdoin does not separate tuition from room and board, and so the costs were presented together under Tuition.  While that may be evident to those in the world of higher ed, a parent or potential student might not understand the complexities underlying the data.

Luckily, consumers have a handy tool to use here in the US when shopping for higher ed, and it's also a tool that helps researchers.  Because all US institutions are required to report to NCES through IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), a portal was created for consumers called College Navigator.  This tool, one of the more positive results of the initiatives by Secretary Margaret Spellings's Commission on the Future of Higher Education allows the user to perform a college comparison and to drill down using indicators to help see explanations for the information shown.  For example, an institution might show a low student retention rate which, on the surface (especially when compared side by side in a rankings report), might indicate a lack of ability on the institutions' part to keep their students to stay, but the reality being perhaps that the institution has a low amount of first time full time freshman, and actually accepts more transfer students in to the institution who are further on in their studies, and stay until they graduate.  Consumers are able to better see this kind of caveat when presented through College Navigator.   It also allows Institutional Researchers to benchmark their own institutions against their peers. 

I'm pretty sure I will be posting more about the Rankings Game, as it seems to be a hot topic in higher ed, and especially with Institutional Researchers, as we are the folks behind the scenes preparing and providing the information.  Consumers are out there using these tools.  We need to make sure that our data is clear, transparent, and available.  Secrecy is old school.

The Census and Higher Ed

 

A blog article came out last week in the Chronicle entitled "What the Lost Decade of Wages Means for Colleges and Their Graduates" by Jeffrey Salingo, and it contained some sobering data about our economy and the reality for college graduates in this day and age.  With steadily rising tuition and fewer options once students graduate, the author questions the ability for colleges to operate in the black, and the ability for students to afford to attend.

How best can the IR and Budget office help to inform not only the Administration about trends in tuition rises, but also students about why their tuition goes up? Students are beginning to ask.  At RISD, our Student Alliance has asked the Finance office to come and speak, and the Budget Director has responded by creating an in-depth Powerpoint for them entitled "Show me the Money."  With pie charts showing exactly where tuition goes to pay for such things as facilities, debt service, academic programs and student services, students will be better informed.  It is a good tactic for the administrators to be able to be as transparent as possible with the students, who are in effect the consumers.  Having had a preview of this powerpoint this week, I was particularly impressed by the "What if" scenarios our Budget Director presents: What if we do not raise tuition? If we kept everything the same, would we be able to provide the same quality education and pay our bills as an institution? As a parent of a freshman at college, and back in school myself, I do feel the hit when colleges increase their tuition.  But seen in the light of transparency, it is much easier to understand.  Hopefully, the students will feel the same way.  How sustainable are annual tuition increases? Time will tell.

Welcome! About IR Us - Adventures in Institutional Research

Welcome to IR Us! Ever wonder what your college's Institutional Research office does? Are you new to the field of Institutional Research and don't know what IPEDS is? How about NSSE? A CIRP survey? Never fear, your Curious Institutional Research & Budget Analyst at Rhode Island School of Design (that's ME!) has created this blog in order to explore these and many other mysteries in the world of Higher Ed.

I joined the office of Institutional Research at RISD in June of this year (2011.)  In July, my two supervisors sent me off to the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) Foundations I Institute, where I learned a LOT, but the information being so comprehensive, have been unable (until now) to find an outlet to talk about all of the things I learned there and continue to learn in my new role at RISD.  On top of all that, I decided after many years to go back to school to pursue a BS in Information Science at Johnson & Wales.  I know, right? Call me crazy, but I am actually seeing a connection here.  When polled (and isn't that what we do best?) at Foundations Institute, a majority of those asked told me that they had a background in Information Science.  It appears I chose the right major!

So bear with me here.  This blog is mental exercise, school assignment (FIT1012), and career and work log (we'll be looking at how IR works in the college - both public and private institutions, how IR offices are set up, what kinds of things we study, and more!)

Thanks for reading!
Anj