A doctoral student with the administration and supervision department of the college of education was selected recently as a fellow to participate in a summer instructional and seminar program to use the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and National Science Foundation (NSF) databases.

Bessie Guerrant, a former educator who is currently working in the Research and Graduate Studies office at UK, was informed that she had been accepted as a Fellow in the 2001 Summer Data Policy Institute sponsored by both the NCES and NSF. The institute, being held from June 19-29, 2001, will be "a combination of instruction on the content and uses of the NSF and NCES national data sets and policy seminars focused on national higher education issues," according to a press release.

The NSF and NCES are among the largest databases in the country containing a broad range of information on higher education. Much of the information contains detailed demographics of those earning doctorates throughout all state-funded Universities.

For many years, Guerrant said, this information was compiled primarily for use by the federal government. However, both national research organizations have looked into disseminating their work to a larger audience because of its value to higher education. The institute was started by the NCES and NSF to train professional researchers to use this information in their own research.

"There is a huge amount of information the NSF and NCES gathers. These sessions will hopefully encourage more researchers to make use of it. Although there would be many applications for this data, it certainly can be used for UK to measure itself against other state universities," Guerrant said.

Guerrant, who attended the NSF program last year, is especially interested in the 2001 institute because of the training she will receive to use NCES data. Last year, only the NSF provided training. The NCES, Guerrant said, will provide information more applicable to general institutional research because its data comes from all colleges and universities.

"The NCES training dovetails nicely into my own research interests at the University. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to learn more about it," Guerrant said. Her training will also pay dividends to UK as well. Upon completing the 2001 program, Guerrant will obtain for UK an Institute license, giving her access to more recent and to confidential databases as well.

Posted 5/08/2001 - Send news updates to Josh Shepherd