Improving research on postsecondary student outcomes: a review of the strengths and limitations of national data resources (tables 1-6 and appendix)

Reviewing and synthesizing published research is a routine, yet critical, scholarly activity. Such reviews help document the current state of knowledge in particular fields of scientific inquiry while also serving to articulate themes and identify frameworks that are generated across a variety of studies. The purpose of this analysis is to review existing national data sets to determine their utility in studying teaching, learning, and assessment issues. In this report, the authors review, compare, and contrast the strengths and limitations of existing national data resources on postsecondary education. Their results help document the existing capacity to study teaching, learning, and assessment activities with existing data resources, while also suggesting directions and priorities for future data collection activities. While interest in assessing the outcomes of undergraduate education and other forms of postsecondary activities has continued to grow in recent years, unfortunately, the increased demand for empirical evidence on the relationship between teaching, learning, and assessment and student outcomes across the American postsecondary system has largely remained unmet.

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