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The Office of Planning and Institutional Assessment facilitates the University's planning, improvement and assessment initiatives.

The Office uses organizational change tools to help departments and units develop strategic plans, improve key processes, assess institutional needs, and develop collaborative team environments.

Services of the Office of Planning and Institutional Assessment are provided free of charge to The Pennsylvania State University and are adapted to the specific needs of departments or individuals.

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Quality Endeavors Newsletter Issue No. 112 September 2008 - Quality Advocates- Fall 2008

Assessing the Impact of the Spellings Commission: The Message, the Messenger, and the Dynamics of Change in Higher Education

This report written by Brent D. Ruben, co-authored by Louise Sandmeyer and Laurie Lewis, was recently published by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). The report reviews the work of the Commission, discusses how college and university leaders perceive the future impact of the Commission’s work, and examines the process of change in higher education. The full report and a summary of the report are available at http://www.nacubo.org/x7.xml.

Joseph M. Juran Center for Leadership in Quality Announces 2008 Juran Fellows, which include two Penn State doctoral students. Each year, the Joseph M. Juran Center selects and honors doctoral candidates whose research shows the most promise in broadening and fueling thinking and practices in the area of quality-related research in their chosen fields.

Application available for Leveraging Excellence award program for innovation and improvement initiatives - Each year at the Quality Issues Forum, Penn State recognizes the innovation and improvement initiatives taking place in academic and administrative units across the University. Such efforts are now being recognized nationally through the Leveraging Excellence award. The 2009 Leveraging Excellence award, sponsored by the National Consortium for Continuous Improvement, will recognize initiatives that have been disseminated across or beyond an institution. Award applications are due October 1, 2008.   More information about the award can be found at Leveraging Excellence.

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Reports

Characteristics of At-Risk Students - presented at the 2008 Association for Institutional Research annual conference by Michael Dooris and Marianne Guidos

This paper examines correlates of success for lower-income students who have a rocky academic start at Penn State. It addresses the question of: What are the characteristics of those lower-income, lower-ability students who – unlike the other 80% of freshmen in that same high-risk category – overcome financial and academic barriers to earn degrees?

Toward Research Transparency: Fostering Collaboration, Increasing Accountability, and Building a Knowledgebase Using Open Source Methods - presented at the 2008 Association for Institutional Research annual conference by Daniel Nugent and Nicholas Warcholak

A complex project often requires greater collaboration among team members, increased accountability, and the creation of a robust knowledgebase. This report proposes that adopting some existing practices and tools primarily used by open source software engineering communities can facilitate these efforts.

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Spotlight on Quality Improvement

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