Identification and Assessment of Community College Peer Institution Selection Systems

Abstract

This paper identifies and assess the current status of community college peer institution selection systems. Five questions were posited: What are the impetuses for conducting institutional comparative analysis? Who has developed community college institutional peer groups? What constitutes a peer group; are there different types? How is a peer group determined; what are the methods used and variables included? To what extent are institutional peer groups present in community college settings? This research found that a limited body of research exists in the study of community college peer institution selection systems. Additional research is suggested for identifying unique community college variables and for determining the role of classification systems to further describe community college diversity.