Education Commons^™

Western Educational Longitudinal Study (Wels): Fall, 2005, Baseline Survey Of In-Coming Freshmen, Gary (Gary Russell) Mckinney, Richard Bulcroft, Sara Jones

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

INTRODUCTION The Western Educational Longitudinal Study (WELS) was conceived as a process to obtain data more relevant to Western and its mission than survey data had been able to obtain previously. Rather than continuing to rely on outside survey forms, researchers developed a Western-specific survey form. Development of this survey took about three years, with researchers soliciting input from dozens of individuals, departments and offices. Along the way, WELS researchers also noted where data was already being collected so that doubling up on survey questions was minimized. The final survey form was considered by all participants to be as thorough …