CHAPEL HILL, N.C., March 31, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via PRWEB - PAR Framework, Inc., the leading independent, non-profit provider of learner analytics as a service, today announced a partnership with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to extend higher education outcomes metrics and measurement efforts at the national policy level. This partnership will feature the active collaboration of more than 15 US post-secondary institutions focused on serving non-traditional student populations coming from the for-profit and not-for profit sectors.
Metrics currently used to describe and compare the performance of higher education institutions in the United States do not reflect the post-traditional students, instructional methods, business models, and data resources that distinguish contemporary higher education. This PAR - AIR collaboration will inform the development of benchmarking within the postsecondary community and provide initial insight into performance of for-profit and alternative delivery models including online learning. This effort will also identify potential improvements to federal data collections, statutory disclosure and reporting requirements, especially with regards to transfer students and adult learners.
This effort will actively leverage PAR's openly published common data definitions and existing data gathering, handling and analysis resources to standardize on meanings for metrics that predict points of student loss in the US higher education ecosystem. PAR has already worked collaboratively with a heterogeneous set of US higher education institutions, and has deep experience build normalized datasets that enable effective and meaningful outcomes comparisons in a way that reflects the changing landscape of educational models. PAR has established processes that fit AIR's objectives and has existing relationships with several of the institutions that fit the profile for inclusion in this project.
"PAR is committed to producing metrics that generalize and solutions that scale," said Beth Davis, PAR Framework CEO. "PAR partners have seen great value from common standards for outcomes data at student, program and institutional levels. We are excited that AIR is exploring relevant metrics for today's postsecondary reality and are especially pleased the data experts at AIR have chosen to work with the PAR team to accelerate their efforts."
"When AIR set about planning our work we quickly saw the advantages of working with PAR", said Dr. Thomas Weko, Managing Researcher, Higher Education, American Institutes for Research. "AIR is an independent and non-partisan research organization committed to rigorous work -- and we needed a trusted and respected postsecondary data partner. PAR's data experience, existing relationships with key partners, and its skill in working with multi-institutional data to draw meaningful, national comparisons made it an ideal partner in this work."
ABOUT PAR
The Predictive Analytics Reporting (PAR) Framework is an independent, non-profit provider of learner analytics as a service. PAR offers educational stakeholders a unique multi-institutional perspective for examining dimensions of student success that will help improve retention in US higher education. PAR improves student success with predictive models and collaborative benchmarks and frameworks that identify critical points of student risks, and links interventions and services for at-risk students at the points of greatest need. PAR is distinguished among the many data analytics solutions emerging in the education domain by its common, openly published data definitions and student success frameworks. For more information about PAR please visit http://www.parframework.org
ABOUT PAR MEMBERSHIP
PAR membership is open to all accredited institutions of postsecondary education in the United States. PAR welcomes institutional partners that want to demonstrate how its programs contribute toward student success innovation. . For information about how to join PAR Framework please visit: http://www.parframework.org/contact/
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