Research Innovation

CASL IPEDS Database

Connecting HBCUs with tomorrow’s STEM fields

CASL’s research innovation is connecting HBCUs with tomorrow’s STEM fields. When broadening STEM, scholars need the information at their fingertips, the Center for the Advancement of STEM Leadership (CASL) is a resource. CASL’s Research Database is a research hub that unearths the hidden history of HBCUs’ impact on STEM fields. Chronicling 187 years (since establishing the first HBCU), the CASL Research Database curates information collected from the Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and original data – interviews, artifacts, and current evidence – to unlock the portal of student impact and success.

CASL’s innovation research infrastructure supports large volumes of qualitative data collected through traditional interviews and creative elicitation strategies. Additionally, the CASL IPEDS Database enables HBCU scholars to submit inquiries and use these inquiries to generate pre-formatted reports of findings based on their investigation allowing scholars to understand leaders’ perspectives through institutional variables deeply. The purpose of the CASL Research Database is to:

Facilitate using the IPEDS database for CASL-affiliated researchers
Reduce the complexity of data searches
Enhance research about HBCU leadership
Promote innovation
Foster interdisciplinary collaboration

The objectives of CASL Research Database are to:

Collected qualitative data, is coded by the CASL Research team using qualitative software such as Atlas. The large volume of data are stored using open-source technologies, specifically SQL and NoSQL, for traditional relational database design. This database enables storing and querying structured qualitative data. Data visualization and statistical analysis are also conducted using tools such as Tableau, R Studio and Python. CASL IPEDS Database allows HBCU scholars to access a specialized database developed with the 67 HBCU affiliate portfolios.

Various tools utilized by the CASL Research team to generate the IPEDS Database