CIC has devoted substantial resources and energy over the past five years to its Data Initiatives, a direct outcome of the strategic planning process conducted in 2001. CIC is collecting and disseminating information to achieve several objectives: 1) provide data to enhance decision-making; 2) develop programs for using data in decision-making; and 3) make the case for the effectiveness of independent higher education.

Tools to Enhance Decision-Making

CIC directs resources and creates opportunities for its members to enhance their use of national comparative data in institutional decision-making.

Key Indicators Tool (KIT)—The Key Indicators Tool, introduced in June 2004, was updated in summer 2005 with the latest data available from the U.S. Department of Education’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). This important benchmarking tool, free to CIC members, provides a customized, confidential report to the president on 16 indicators of institutional performance. The KIT tracks data on enrollment size and graduation rates, faculty, tuition and financial aid, financial resources, and expenditures over a five-year period. Each indicator provides comparisons nationally and by region, enrollment, and financial resources. The national comparison group includes 750 non-doctoral independent colleges and universities in the U.S., representing 94 percent of CIC’s membership. A new update will be sent in late summer 2006 following the next release of IPEDS data.


View full-size version of sample KIT chart.

Comparison Group KIT—CIC has recently experimented with customized comparison group reports for the KIT. The first pilot was a comparative report for the 28 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) that are CIC members. The HBCU KIT provides separate comparisons on each of the 16 key indicators, using data from 41 small and mid-sized private HBCUs.

Online KIT Consultations—CIC has asked The Austen Group (the KIT project contractor) to test live, online consultation at a modest price to CIC member institutions that have questions about their KIT reports or want help in making effective use of KIT data. A pilot consultation was recently conducted with one institution.

Financial Indicators Tool (FIT)—In 2005, CIC and The Austen Group piloted a Financial Indicators Tool (FIT) for a sample of 65 representative CIC institutions. Based on KPMG’s Composite Financial Index, the FIT provides an easily comprehensible assessment of an institution’s financial performance that can be tracked over time and benchmarked against similar institutions. Four financial ratios—measuring resource sufficiency, operating results, financial assets, and debt management—are presented individually and combined into a single index score indicating the financial health of the institution, tracked over a six-year period.

CIC’s FIT is distinctive in two ways. First, it utilizes publicly available data from IPEDS as well as IRS Form 990s obtained from GuideStar instead of requiring each CIC member institution to send in six years of annual financial statements. Second, the FIT provides nationally normed comparisons similar to those in the KIT. CIC’s FIT is the first financial benchmarking tool to provide such nationally representative comparisons for any group of American colleges and universities.

Distributed in December 2005, CIC’s FIT pilot report sought to answer two important questions. First, is it feasible to collect the necessary data from public sources, and would those sources be comparable to institutional audited financial statements? The answer to both aspects of this question was “yes.” Second, would the FIT be a useful diagnostic and decision-making tool for member presidents? The response from a survey of participating presidents was also “yes.” On a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being “most useful,” the FIT received an average score of 4. Presidents also provided helpful comments on the ways they used the FIT to assess institutional financial condition and the extent of their sharing this information with other campus decision-makers. Given the success of the FIT pilot, CIC may produce a similar financial benchmarking report for all members.

Both the KIT annual reports to CIC presidents and the FIT pilot are funded by grants from the William Randolph Hearst Foundations in support of CIC’s Data Initiatives.

Using Data in Decision-Making

CIC continues to partner with other organizations to strengthen institutional capacity to use data for improved institutional effectiveness and decision-making.

Collegiate Learning Assessment Consortium—In cooperation with the Council for Aid to Education (CAE), CIC is working over a three-year period with a consortium of 33 institutions using the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), a new instrument to evaluate student learning. The CLA provides one of the first “value added” measures that can reliably measure institutional contributions to student learning.

The first annual meeting of the CIC/CLA Consortium was held in July 2005. Participants discussed the design, administration, and use of the CLA with CAE staff. The next consortium meeting will be held on July 24–25, 2006. Campus teams attending the summer 2006 meeting will work together to interpret and understand their CLA institutional score reports, and develop campus goals and strategies in light of the reports.

The CIC/CLA Consortium is supported by grants from the Teagle Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Data and Decisions Workshops—CIC is a cosponsor with the Association for Institutional Research (AIR), of workshops on the use of comparative data in institutional decision-making. The fifth workshop—and largest to date—was held April 20–22, 2006 (see story). A sixth workshop in this series will be held October 5-7, 2006 in St. Louis. Since fall 2001, more than 125 CIC member institutions have taken advantage of this special training opportunity. The Data and Decisions Workshops are funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics.

Institutional Advancement Study—In cooperation with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), CIC cosponsored a study of institutional advancement practices in small and mid-sized private colleges and universities. More than 270 CIC members completed a comprehensive survey earlier this year. Once the project leaders have analyzed the data, they will prepare a report providing valuable benchmarking data on the fundraising and public relations activities of small and mid-sized independent institutions of higher education. Since 1976, CIC and CASE have participated in similar joint projects approximately every seven years.

Making the Case

The centerpiece of CIC’s effort to demonstrate the quality and effectiveness of independent higher education is the Making the Case website. This website gathers in one place much of the most compelling and relevant data on the independent sector of higher education, providing useful comparisons between small and mid-sized private colleges and universities and other types of institutions. The website’s charts, graphs, and narratives—all from carefully documented sources—are organized around six key messages. Independent colleges 1) are affordable for students and families, 2) provide access and success for diverse students, 3) provide personal attention to students, 4) enable student success, 5) engender alumni satisfaction, and 6) involve students and alumni contributing to the public good. The website is based on a variety of sources including datasets available from the U.S. Department of Education. In addition, CIC commissioned special studies using data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), as well as an alumni study by the research firm Hardwick-Day.

The website is designed as a resource for campus leaders. Its key messages and data can be easily used in speeches and publications, buttressed by relevant local information and illustrations. Launched in June 2005, the site has already received more than 8,000 visits, currently at a rate of 750 per month. A periodic electronic letter informs presidents, CAOs, and directors of public relations and institutional research of selected information on the website. (See Making the Case—Community Service and Graduation Rates.)

CIC is updating the Making the Case website regularly as more data become available and are analyzed. For example, CIC has commissioned a new analysis of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) that will describe the performance of nondoctoral private colleges in comparison with other types of four-year institutions, as well as look at institutional performance by religious affiliation.

CIC’s Making the Case effort is funded by grants from the William Randolph Hearst Foundations in support of CIC’s Data Initiatives. For additional information about any of CIC’s Data Initiatives, contact CIC Director of Research Hal Hartley at (202) 466-7230 or hhartley@cic.nche.edu.