ABSTRACT
Accountability, the process of publicly documenting institutional practices and effects, is one of three ways that higher education institutions relate to and sustain the support of the larger society. Offering evidence of institutional fidelity to societal expectations of what the academy should achieve complements and, in turn, reinforces the two other pillars of societal support: public trust in colleges and universities; and the academy's success in the marketplace. The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), though focused overwhelmingly on enrollments, staffing, expenditure, and revenues, also includes retention and graduation-rate indicators, reflecting a growing movement to offer at least some evidence of the extent to which students reach outcomes that the public associates with colleges and universities. Colleges participating in the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), as well as the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE), routinely analyze student responses to questionnaire items that reflect selected collegiate experiences.
