| The purpose of this project was to describe the social and political forces as well as the methodological factors that affect the collection and reporting of national statistics on higher education. Two cases describe the development of data sets utilizing statistics on higher education. The Fact Book on Women in Higher Education, a secondary data source prepared by the Office of Women in Higher Education of the American Council on Education, is the subject of the first case. The second case involves the development and implementation of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.;The social and political factors considered in this study were the underlying societal and cultural assumptions, organizational policies and practices, and political factors both internal and external to the organization in which the case was set. Methodological factors investigated included definitions, reliability and validity of data, comparability of data, and presentation methods. Activities included interviews of key participants, analysis of government and non-public documents, direct observation, and participation in the development of the Fact Book. A literature review was used to place each case within a socio-historical context. In the IPEDS case, a comparison was made between IPEDS survey forms and the comparable forms of the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), which IPEDS supplanted in 1986.;The cases revealed that social and political forces, as well as methodological decisions, influence the collection and reporting of data. Given the increasing use of data by policy-makers and others not involved in research, these results emphasize the importance of recognizing and identifying the social and political factors that influence national statistics on higher education. |
