Conduct analysis
Once variables and weights have been finalized, the PAIR team will conduct an analysis that takes both the variables and weights into consideration to craft a list of possible peers. To determine peer institutions, PAIR will use the statistical analysis package R to create a distance matrix capturing pairwise distance between JMU and each institution in the final population. A distance matrix is a way to systematically quantify similarity or dissimilarity between pairs of objects (e.g., JMU and another institution). The distance matrix is calculated using Euclidean distance, which is a way to measure “straight line” difference between two points in space.
Action Item: Consult with PAIR
From this analysis, PAIR will develop a list of institutions ordered by their distance from JMU. The smaller the distance, the more similar the institution is to JMU, based on the specific set of variables and weights.