IRAE Mission

The mission of the Office of Institutional Research, Assessment and Effectiveness (IRAE) at West Virginia State University is to support the achievement of the University mission by providing timely, accurate, and unbiased data and analysis for institutional decision-making, assessment, effective management, and strategic planning.

Institutional Research, Assessment and Effectiveness (IRAE)collects, organizes, analyzes and reports institutional and other data to support  the management, operations, strategic decision-making, and planning activities. This contributes to our effort to provide data and information related to projected needs, program objectives, and the efficiency and effectiveness in the use of institutional resources. 

As a unit within the Office of President, IRAE is charged to meet the  information needs of the University community as the official source of data/information for the institution.

IRAE oversees the institutional data governance and management processes. The staff coordinates data analysis, reporting activities and procedures designed to meet the needs of constituencies both internal and external to the University. IRAE provides timely, accurate and reliable information, analysis, implications, and recommendations for informed decision-making. IRAE has the overall responsibility for providing leadership and direction for the institutional effectiveness process including:

• Accountability and Reporting “Official Data”
  • Federal reporting (IPEDS, NSF-NIH, etc.)
  • State reporting (scheduled and ad hoc) and data requests
  • External reporting (Common Data Set, U.S. News, etc.)
  • National and State initiatives
  • Other related compliance reporting
  • Ad hoc requests
• Institutional Assessment, Survey Administration and Support
  • Institutional-level surveys and analysis—students, faculty, staff, alumni
  • Department/program-level needs (assessment, accreditation, or program review)
  • Program learning outcomes assessment reporting and support
  • Survey development, consultation, and support
  • Survey coordination
• Institutional Effectiveness and Continuous Improvement
  • Department Analytics Report and other standard department/program metrics
  • University KPI reporting, performance reports, strategic planning, and accreditation data reports
  • Scheduled analyses (e.g. outcomes measures)
  • Workload and instruction analyses
  • Ad hoc policy analyses
  • University peer comparisons and benchmarking
• Information Management and Leadership
  • Data governance and quality
  • Data Cookbook/Dictionary
  • Faculty Activity Reporting and Evaluations
  • Course evaluation process and system management
  • Data team coordination for data uploads
  • Data and analytical consultation
  • Innovative data visualizations and dashboards
• Applied Research and Analysis
  • Student success research (e.g., retention modeling, graduation modeling, at-risk predictions, student success, etc.)
  • Enrollment management research
  • Institutional studies
  • Faculty research consultation
  • Grants proposal support
  • Methodologies: Coding and data management; data visualizations; external databases; descriptive and multivariate statistics; qualitative and content analyses.
• Administrative
  • Professional service and scholarship
  • Staff training and development
  • Ongoing planning and evaluation 
  • University Service

The following values reflect that Instituional Research, Assessment and Effectivness (IRAE)  in accordance with best practice data integrity standards, upholds the principles with regard to confidentiality, personal integrity, professional development, and ethical codes within the field of institutional research and effectiveness professionals.

• IRAE maintains strict confidence and security of all confidential information in our possession about West Virginia State University or any of its constituent parts.
• We treat all participants with dignity and respect and weigh/risks/benefits in every study according to the generally accepted ethical standards as members of, and espoused by the Association for Institutional Research (AIR),  AIR Code of Ethics in the areas of Competence, Practice, Confidentiality, Relationships to the Community, and Relationships to the Craft.
• We commit to conduct research in an objective manner utilizing the highest standards for accuracy in methodology, data quality, and the presentation of findings with professional responsible interpretation.

The specific prioritized goals for IRAE include the following:

1. Serves as the certifying authority for all internal and external data reports and communication. 
2. ​Assist in planning appropriate assessment and evaluation as required in the guidelines for academic program and sector area reviews. 
3. Provide timely assistance to the University’s long-range and strategic planning, processes and outcomes assessment.
4. Assist in providing timely information regarding enrollment and retention, financial aid, student development, engagement, residence life and student success data and outcomes.
5. Track and serve as the University clearinghouse for responses to external agencies’ surveys or other requests for data and information, to provide accuracy and consistency. Coordinate these activities with Marketing and Communications to communicate deserved recognition for the University. 
6. Assist in appropriate preparations and responses to Higher Learning Commission (HLC) and other related accreditation activities for reaffirmation of accreditation.
7. Coordinate data collection processes at WVSU, including development of appropriate software and computer applications for a systematic approach with Information Technology.
8.  Provide assistance to individual faculty, staff, and students on their requests through the appropriate request process.
9. Participate in the institutional and higher education research community, and engage in appropriate professional development activities, for sound practice and perspective in conducting the business of the institutional research.
10. Participate in the appropriate evaluation and improvement of research and policy analysis and its functions, including recommendations regarding resources that might be needed.
11. Fulfill other tasks as assigned by the Office of the President.

The Statement of Aspirational Practice for Institutional Research is a set of four broad principles that represent a collaborative approach to data and analytics. It challenges institutions to take a more holistic view of IR capacity and how institutional research professionals work across the institution with other departments and units. The four principles are as follows:

1. A Student-Focused Paradigm: A student-focused approach provides an organizational framework for the work of institutional research. It prioritizes the support and acceleration of institutional efforts to improve the student experience and increase student progress and completion. Student-related analyses does not encompass the full range of work by the office, but it is a unifying priority that is shared across nearly all institutions.
2. An Expanded Definition of Decision Makers: Historically, institutional research has served in two key roles: the support of senior leaders and the completion of mandatory reporting. The Statement propels higher education leaders, to recognize and empower other stakeholder groups within an institution—particularly faculty, front-line staff, and students—to better leverage information and analytic tools to shape decisions.
3. A Data and Analytics Function: Data are no longer confined to one office. Rather, data are diffused with broader access to technology, tools and reporting software with the potential for usable and actionable data analyses by more people. Expanded access to data and tools requires coaching and professional development for individuals across the institution to acquire data literacy.
4. Executive Leadership: An executive-level leader for the data and analytics function is critical for bringing together different information sources, decision-support activities, analytic systems, and data users into a coordinated institution-wide data strategy. It requires a significant focus on building relationships, structures and capacities, and connecting disparate pieces of information. Such a leader contributes to strategy planning and decision making, builds productive partnerships other business units, and manages data governance.

The Statement of Aspirational Practice for Institutional Research underscores the critical contributions of institutional research within an institutional culture of evidence-based decisions and actions. They serve as data coaches and teachers to increase data literacy and inform decisions within functional areas. IR professionals are valuable collaborators within cross-institutional committees, with the institutional knowledge to pose key questions and the technical skills to integrate data from different sources and systems. In sum, IR professionals offer the knowledge, analysis, contextualization, and interpretation that turns data into meaningful and actionable information.

To grow and flourish in these and similar roles, IR professionals are required to be proactive and visible within their institutional communities—it is no longer enough to stay in the IR office, complete required reporting, and respond only to the data needs of senior leaders.

The future of IR is linked to proactive approaches to build partnerships, expand the data literacy and capacity of users, and maintain a user-focused perspective. That is, IR professionals must be leaders who think strategically about data and their use across the institution as well as within functional areas, academic departments, and classrooms. Successful institutions are those that effectively apply the insights and knowledge gained through data and analytics to, first and foremost, increase the success of all students.The Future of Institutional Research: An Aspirational Model
Christine Keller | Executive Director, Association for Institutional Research