Office of Institutional Research
ARC’s Research team provides the College community with data, analyses, reporting, and data coaching to help facilitate effective planning and decision-making.
This includes supporting ad-hoc data requests, constructing and/or administering surveys, conducting focus groups or interviews, validating assessment tools and prerequisites, assessing changes resulting from state initiatives, supporting Accreditation self-evaluation, developing data visualization tools, supporting annual unit planning and program review activities, and performing sophisticated data modeling (e.g., to assess the efficacy of new or existing programs).
Student Achievement Data
The following California Community College (CCCCO) links provide access to State performance metrics and dashboards that are related specifically to student achievement. They have been assembled here, in part, to facilitate access to this information by members of the Accreditation Visiting Team. They are listed in the order they appear on the State Chancellor’s Office website.
Student Success Metrics
Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative Portal (IEPI)
Salary Surfer
Data Mart
Launchboard
CalPass Plus
CTE Outcomes Survey
The following links provide access to equity reports, such as those presented at Fall 2020 Convocation regarding the Districtwide and ARC goals for course success and transfer level English and Math completion. Please reach out to the Research team for assistance with interpretation of the data.
Districtwide Metric #1: Course Success
Districtwide Metric #2: Transfer Level English and Math
Districtwide Metric #3: English Writing 300 in the First Year
Districtwide Metric #4: Transfer Level Math in the First Year
Data Dashboards
ARC has partnered with Precision Campus to provide an array of automated reports about the college and its students. These include reports aimed specifically at measuring the extent to which ARC is progressing towards the achievement of its Strategic Plan and Institutional Redesign goals, as well as the primarily enrollment and outcomes oriented reports typically found in an institutional factbook. Most of the reports offered here can be disaggregated by applying multiple filters, to facilitate answering questions about intersectionality. Note that this site, available from home with your LRCCD single-sign-on authentication, provides information only for past, archived semesters. (Tip: When typing the url of this secure site, begin with https://...)
The following links provide access to research office data dashboards for each college and the district office.
The following links provide access to CCCCO (California Community College Chancellor’s Office) and CSU data, as well as to research-oriented websites containing considerable current and relevant content.
- CCCCO Basic Skills Cohort Progress Tracker
- CCCCO CalPass Plus
- CCCCO Counts of sections offered, students enrolled, and FTES by credit course characteristics
- CCCCO CTE Outcomes Survey
- CCCCO Data Mart
- CCCCO Faculty and Staff Demographics
- CCCCO Launchboard
- CCCCO Program Awards
- CCCCO Salary Surfer
- CCCCO Student Success Metrics
- CCCCO Student Success Scorecard (2018 and prior)
Services
The research team uses a web based form for the intake of all research requests. The form may change over the next semester, but will remain the mechanism by which research requests will be submitted to the research team. Currently, any member of the college community may submit a research request but will be asked to provide the necessary detail for it to be prioritized. A separate form/process has been developed for requests from student groups, to be approved by their student advisor (please email if interested). Our development plans include the creation of a dynamic work log, to make transparent to the college community how many and which requests are in the queue. This will also facilitate the automation of email request confirmations and follow-up evaluation questionnaires.
ARC Internal Research Requests Process
Research Request Prioritization Criteria
The research team has an active interest in supporting members of the college community in their data collection efforts. ARC’s 2019 Data Use Statement and Survey Guidelines make the case for the importance of all ARC surveys to meet a minimum threshold for professionalism (e.g., well written, appropriate intro, unbiased prompts and response options, good spelling and grammar, visually attractive, intuitive interactivity, true anonymity (when required), and appropriate analyses and reporting). The research team can produce surveys for you, or will collaborate with you on your survey drafts to ensure that these guidelines are met. ARC's researchers can, and in many cases would prefer to, implement your survey using ARC's high-end, dedicated survey software which, among other advanced features, ensures the strict anonymity of respondents. For the questionnaires and general data collection you perform in your work area, Google Forms and Survey Monkey may be perfectly acceptable tools, however they may not ensure strict anonymity.
Of limited availability during S20, due to the transitioning to remote operations, the research team may be able to support members of the college community in developing and conducting focus groups and interviews, to address their qualitative data needs. As noted in ARC’s 2019 Data Use and Survey Guidelines, the interest is to ensure that such sessions are conducted with scripts and processes that are professional, unbiased, and appropriate.
Of limited availability during S20, due to the transitioning to remote operations, ARC’s research team may be able to assist with developing and conducting evaluations of college processes, governance structures and assessment strategies, in support of program, college and/or Accreditation needs. This may include surveys, focus groups, or interviews.
A member of ARC’s research team would be happy to join you (or your dept/div), 1) to walk you through the data we’ve provided so you can be confident it’s being interpreted correctly, 2) to help requesters become more comfortable with general data use and interpretation, and 3) to facilitate exploration of what data and/or analyses are available and most appropriate for assessing the results of a new strategy, initiative, or policy. Examples include data interpretation as it relates to program review and unit planning data, equity data (e.g., the data set originally developed for ARC’s Equity Action Institute participants, now available to all interested faculty – includes equity and disproportionate impact analyses and comparisons), the value of assessing program efficacy using a propensity matching model, and AB705 data and implications.
Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL)
Instructional Technology Center (ITC)
Conducting Research at ARC
The following guidelines provide the steps for conducting research solely at ARC, or at two or more of the Los Rios colleges. An Internal Review Board (IRB) exists at each college and at the district office. An IRB approval is required for research conducted by, 1) university students, 2) university faculty/staff, and 3) external agencies to conduct research at a Los Rios college. IRB approval is also required for research conducted by LRCCD employees for any master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation, not sponsored by the Los Rios District or a Los Rios college. And IRB approval is required of any ARC faculty member wishing to conduct anything other than classroom-based research with the intent of publishing or presenting the information off campus. Note that IRB approval is not necessary for faculty to perform research in their classroom(s) (e.g., as part of a sabbatical, for professional interest or for a graduate thesis or dissertation).
Steps for conducting research at American River College and no other Los Rios colleges.
- Contact ARC’s Research Office well in advance to discuss the research topic, your timeline, and the feasibility of your research project;
- Submit to ARC’s Research Office in electronic form all of the following;
- A completed LRCCD Research Proposal Form,
- An approved, signed IRB from your university (if applicable),
- Responses to ARC's local IRB criteria,
- Your research proposal, and
- Copies of all materials (e.g., survey instruments, focus group or interview scripts/prompts, consent letters).
- ARC’s IRB Team will review your proposal and will notify you as to whether it is approved, approved with conditions, or denied. While your request will be reviewed in a timely manner, depending on workload, the entire approval process may take as long as one month.
Steps for conducting research at two or more Los Rios colleges.
- Contact the Director of Institutional Research Office at the LRCCD District Office well in advance to discuss the research topic, your timeline, and the feasibility of your research project.
- Once you have finalized your research proposal, complete and return the LRCCD Research Proposal Form and all requested documents to the LRCCD Director of Institutional Research.
- A review team assembled by the LRCCD Director of Research will conduct a review of your proposal and will notify you as to whether it is approved or denied. While your request will be reviewed in a timely manner, depending on workload, the entire approval process may take as long as two months.
Research Request Process & Dynamic Workload Log
The research team’s development plan includes creating a fresh and streamlined process for 1) initiating research requests at ARC, and 2) displaying research office workload and prioritization, to benefit the college community in the following ways. (Expected deployment date is end of Fall 2020 semester.)
- More effectively tie requests to documented institutional and departmental needs, and to better identify underlying research questions and the drivers behind the request.
- Make the prioritization process that is applied to incoming requests more transparent.
- Actively reflect (dynamically) new requests as they enter the queue, and the position in the queue of existing requests.
- Initiate automated confirmation email that the research request has been received.
- Initiate automated follow up questionnaire one month after the research request was fulfilled.
Reports Repository
The research team is currently curating for Fall 2020 a selection of existing reports which we believe may be of interest to various ARC stakeholders.
Fall 2019 Institutional Campus Climate Survey
Spring 2020 Student Experience Survey for ARC’s African American, Latinx, and Native American Disproportionately Impacted (DI) Project Teams Part 1: On the Relationship between Student Experiences and Student Achievement
Spring 2020 Student Experience Survey for ARC’s African American, Latinx, and Native American Disproportionately Impacted (DI) Project Teams Part 2: On the Relationship between Challenges to Completion and Student Achievement.
Contact
- Associate Vice President:
Equity, Institutional Effectiveness And Innovation
Dr. BJ Snowden - Dean of Institutional Effectiveness & Innovation:
Dr. Jennifer Laflam - IT Business Analyst:
Jonathan Newnam - Research Analyst
Diana Lopez - Faculty Research Coordinator:
Yuj Shimizu
Hours
- Monday to Friday
- 8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Location
ARC Internal Research Requests Process
Mission
To provide a broad array of planning and decision support services to each of ARC's stakeholder groups, as well as to various external entities. Our primary role is to facilitate the collection, analysis, and interpretation of institutional data in order to support planning and decision-making aimed at achieving ARC’s mission and strategic goals.