Student Affairs in Higher Education

The Marriott Librarians have developed a library guide, Social Sciences Data Resources. This will help you discover statistical resources for your research purposes.

You may examine all of the library databases available for statistical research and analysis by selecting Article Databases and selecting Statistics/Data Resource using the By Type drop-down box. Below are a few selected from the list:

American Factfinder An online tool for searching U.S. Census datasets including: Decennial Census; American Community Survey; Puerto Rico Community Survey; Annual population estimates; Economic Census.

Statistical Abstracts of the United States: Major source for social, political, and economic statistics of the U.S. Links to earlier editions are provided as well.

ICPSR (Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research) A unique selection of sociological and demographical data available to those affiliated with the University of Utah. Please note that ICSPR files are not available for downloading from library computers. They are available from other UU computers. The contact for instruction in how to use this database is Mark England.

There is an excellent guide on Demographic Statistics from the U.S. Census and other sources as well as Social Science Data Sources.

In-library Research Methods & Statistics Sources

Dictionary of qualitative inquiry (2001; print)

Dictionary of statistics & methodology : a nontechnical guide for the social sciences (1999; print)

Encyclopedia of evaluation (2005; print)

Encyclopedia of social measurement (2005; print)

Encyclopedia of statistical sciences (2006; print)

Evaluating research articles from start to finish (2001; print)

Statistics in a nutshell (2008; online)

The A-Z of social research : a dictionary of key social science research concepts (2003; print)

The Concise encyclopedia of statistics (2008; online)

The SAGE encyclopedia of qualitative research methods (2008; online)

The Sage encyclopedia of social science research methods (2004; print)

The Sage handbook of action research : participative inquiry and practice (2001; print)

Dictionary of Multicultural Education. Level 2, LC1099 .D53 1997  also available in electronic form via the library catalog

 ACT: Reports and Policy Reports
ACT provides scholarly and technical reports on a variety of topics, including test and test-item fairness, test reliability and validity, improving the achievement of at-risk populations, and the determinants of academic success.

Almanac of Higher Education
Go to the "Online Journal", then click on "Facts and "Figures," and finally select the tab for the "Almanac of Higher Education."

Center for Research in Educational Policy

Chronicle of Higher Education -- Facts & Figures
Statistics on a variety of topics related to higher education, including salaries, endowments, graduate rates, philanthropy, and more

College Board:  Research Reports
Data, reports, and research provided by the College Board,

College InSight
Provides data on college affordability, diversity, and student success, and provides tools to compare and analyze this data.  Provides data for almost 5,000 U.S. colleges and universities. In addition to college-level data, it features totals and averages for states, sectors, and other groupings of colleges.

The Education Trust
Includes data points and fact sheets on higher education

ETS: Research for Higher Education
Research reports produced by the ETS.

Grapevine 
A national database of tax support for higher education hosted by the Illinois State University College of Education. Individual state reports include current fiscal year and previous fiscal year state tax appropriations for operating expenses and a 50-state summary table showing state totals for the current year, the previous two years, a ten-year figure, and percentages of change over one, two, and ten years.

Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS)
Data on enrollment, program completions, finances, and institutional characteristics for public and private postsecondary institutions from the mid 1960s through the mid 1980s.

Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) 
HERI is based in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies at UCLA. Its web site provides information from surveys of faculty and students on such topics as attitudes toward technology, service learning and the college experience. The Institute's holdings include more than a hundred datasets that are regularly maintained for analysis of postsecondary education.

Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research  
ICPSR maintains and provides access to an archive of social science data for research and instruction, and offers training in quantitative methods to facilitate effective data use. In addition, ICPSR provides user support to assist researchers in identifying relevant data for analysis and in conducting their research projects.  For more information about how Illinois State University faculty and students can access ICPSR, contact Linda Keiter.

International Archive of Education Data
Acquires, processes, documents and disseminates data collected by national, state or provincial, local, and private organizations, pertaining to all levels of education in countries for which data can be made available

Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)
Note: Although some sections of this site require a user ID and password, you will be able to complete some peer analysis.
This is part of the National Center for Education Statistics (listed below)

National Center for Education Statistics
The primary source of education statistics collected by the U.S. government.

National Center for Education Statistics -- Annual Reports including The Condition of Education, High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States, Indicators of School Crime and Safety, Projections of Education Statistic, The Digest of Education Statistics

National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education
The National Center prepares and makes available reports of   issues regarding opportunity and achievement in higher education.  Links to the reports are provided.

National Report Card on Higher Education
Biennial report card measuring states' achievement and improvement in higher education.

National Survey of Student Engagement 
Designed to obtain, on an annual basis, information from scores of colleges and universities nationwide about student participation in programs and activities that institutions provide for their learning and personal development.

NCHEMS Information Center for Higher Education Policy Making and Analysis
Provides comparative state data related to student success, policies, and competetiveness. 

NEA Almanac of Higher Education
Contains information on faculty salaries and benefits, the economic conditions in the states, faculty workload, trends in bargaining, and information on non-faculty professionals on campus.