IR endeavors to collect, assemble, and provision reliable information in a timely fashion that will:
The Office observes the AIR Code of Ethics.
Where applicable, we follow established practices. For example, retention, persistence, and completion figures are assembled by IR using the same "cohort" methodology utilized by institutions across the United States.
You can learn more about these standards by consulting the IPEDS glossary, also linked on our resource page.
Most IR reports are checked by at least one external party. For example, graduation and retention figures are checked by:
Additionally, most college guides have range and change checks that would identify unusual values or significant changes.
Occasionally, external organizations maintain inconsistent data specifications (Colorado, for example, requires end-of-term data, while almost every other data client will request "census" data).
When extracting data from the College Student Management System (Banner), we validate every measure by comparing a sample of data to the actual data in Banner.
We also conduct internal consistency checks by comparing related fields.
When there are questions about the consistency or quality of the data, IR will consult with the data's original source ( "owner.")