ANN ARBOR—A new partnership between the University of Michigan’s Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research, part of the U-M Institute for Social Research, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association will allow easy on-line public access to NCAA data on the life experiences and academic performance of student-athletes.

The most recent Division I Academic Progress Rate dataset (the first to be publicly released) is now available at www.icpsr.umich.edu/NCAA. This dataset tracks academic progress, eligibility rates, retention rates and penalty and award information of Division I athletes between 2003 and 2008.

“ICPSR is delighted to be partnering with the NCAA to make their rich data on the experiences of student-athletes available to the research community,” said George Alter acting director of ICPSR. “We are excited about this opportunity to stimulate new research on the lives of athletes and the role of intercollegiate athletics in campus life.”

As part of its agreement with the NCAA, ICPSR will process and disseminate four datasets for the NCAA:

• A longitudinal dataset of team-level graduation rates
• A longitudinal dataset of team-level academic progress rates
• The Study of College Outcomes and Recent Experiences (SCORE)
• The Growth, Opportunities, Aspirations and Learning of Students (GOALS).

Under an initiative started by late NCAA President Myles Brand, the data on academics, attitudes and behavior, and athletes’ social, athletic and educational experiences will be publicly released in a format that will protect respondent confidentiality and also allow researchers to examine a variety of issues related to intercollegiate athletics and higher education.

According to the NCAA, the data-sharing initiative will enhance research directly benefiting student-athletes, colleges and intercollegiate sports, and will broaden the dialogue between NCAA research staff and outside scholars.

The NCAA expects to follow the initial data releases with the publication of as much data as possible from its archives.

Established in 1949, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) is the world’s largest academic social science survey and research organization, and a world leader in developing and applying social science methodology, and in educating researchers and students from around the world. ISR conducts some of the most widely-cited studies in the nation, including the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan Survey of Consumer Attitudes, the American National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, the Columbia County Longitudinal Study and the National Survey of Black Americans. ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the Institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China, and South Africa. ISR is also home to the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), the world’s largest digital social science data archive. Visit the ISR Web site at http://www.isr.umich.edu for more information.