Reports & Surveys

Numerous accountability efforts have been launched nationally and in the state, all with the intention to provide information and data to key stakeholders and/or prospective students and their families. These accountability efforts include official information reported to the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) through the Integrated Postsecondary Electronic Data System (IPEDS) and to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) through the Accountability System. Less formal, but no less important to the general public, are the numerous surveys that generate various rankings touted and criticized within higher education, including U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings and the Common Data Set used by several groups. Still, a third effort at accountability has been data exchanges and cooperatives within the higher education community, particularly the Association of American Universities Data Exchange (AAUDE), the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), and the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP). Last, there is the individual effort of institutions to make their own data and information available to the public through websites and publications.