Developing Effective Policy Analysis in Higher Education (J-B IR Single Issue Institutional Research)

What is policy analysis? What are the intellectual and theoretical roots for policy analysis? How is it done? How is policy analysis in higher education different from public administration policy analysis? Does policy analysis differ from institutional research? From planning? What contribution can an institutional researcher make to educational policy analysis? What kind of training is needed in order to do policy analysis? This volume of New Directions for Institutional Research has three goals: (1) to acquaint the institutional researcher with the field of policy analysis; what it is, where it came from, and how it is carried out; (2) to identify the contributions that institutional research makes to policy analysis in terms of comparative institutional information, methodological rigor, and statistical refinement; and (3) to provide examples of policy analysis studies. This is the 76th issue of the quarterly journal New Directions for Institutional Research. For more information on the series, please see the Journals and Periodicals page.

JUDITH I. GILL is director of research and policy analysis for the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, Boulder, Colorado. LAURA SAUNDERS is dean of administration at Highline Community College, Des Moines, Washington.