Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System A Primer IIPS Summer Conference July 26, 2006

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Integrated Postsecondary Education Data SystemA
PrimerIIPS Summer ConferenceJuly 26, 2006
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What is IPEDS?

• The core postsecondary education data collection
  program for NCES
• Designed to collect data from ALL institutions
  whose primary purpose is to provide postsecondary
  education
• Is a comprehensive system of interrelated surveys
  that collects institution-level data

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Who has to submit IPEDS?

• Institutions that have a Program Participation
  Agreement (PPA) with the US Dept of Ed to
  participate in federal student financial aid
  programs
• Section 487(a)(17) of the Higher Education Act of
  1965 as amended (HEA), 20 USC 1094(a)(17)
• institutions will complete surveys conducted
  as part of the Integrated Postsecondary Education
  Data System (IPEDS) in a timely manner and to
  the satisfaction of the Secretary.

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IPEDS Surveys
X

• 9 7 Components
• General Information
• Institutional Characteristics
• Student Surveys
• Enrollment
• Completions
• Graduation Rates
• Student Financial Aid
• Resource Surveys
• Finance
• Human Resources

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Reporting Compliance

• Each year, NCES is required to provide a list to
  the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) of
  institutions that do not submit IPEDS reports
• FSA sends out fine letters and warnings to
  noncompliant institutions
• Penalty for not submitting IPEDS can be as high
  as 27,500 per occurrence, or loss of Title IV
  eligibility

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How Are IPEDS Data Used?

• National Research/Reporting
• COOL
• Higher Education Reauthorization Act
• Postsecondary Education Commission

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System features

• Data are pulled forward from one
  section/component to another
• Totals, differences, percents, rates are
  calculated for you
• Prior year values are preloaded for comparison,
  editing

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Security

• System is password protected
• UserID and password provided to KH
• KH can create up to 6 additional UserIDs, each
  with unique password
• Additional users
• Can usually enter data
• Cannot lock the data
• Contact HELP Desk for lost passwords
  877-225-2568 or ipedshelp_at_rti.org

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Disclosure Protection

• NCES is required by law to protect against
  disclosure of individually identifiable
  information collected by IPEDS
• Four IPEDS data files
• Graduation Rates
• Student Financial Aid
• Salaries
• Fall Staff

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Perturbation

• Random alteration of data in cells with small
  number of observations
• Occurs during migration of data from data
  collection system to Peer Analysis System

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Imputation

• IPEDS data are imputed for total nonresponse and
  item nonresponse
• Various methods used such as prior year adjusted
  values nearest neighbor group means
• Imputation allows files to be used for national
  totals
• Imputed values on final data files

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Keyholder Responsibilities

• Register, and keep contact information current
• Receive all email messages from ED
• Coordinate all aspects of data submission at the
  institution level
• Make sure all data are entered (step 1)
• Make sure all surveys are edited and clean (step
  2)
• Lock the data for all surveys before the
  collection close date (step 3)

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External Responsibilities

• Communicate with system and/or state coordinators
  about the timing of data submission
• Call the IPEDS Help Desk with any questions or
  concerns

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Contact the Help Desk if

• You have ANY questions
• You havent received your UserID and password
• You think your list of applicable surveys is not
  correct
• You think a survey status is not correct

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Contact the Help Desk if

• You have problems entering data
• You have problems resolving edit failures
• You have problems locking your data
• You have questions concerning ANY follow-up email
  you receive

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Web-based Data Tools

• IPEDS COOL
• Executive Peer Tool
• IPEDS Peer Analysis System
• Peer tool
• Dataset cutting tool
• IPEDS DAS
• Table generator
• Tables library

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Additional Resources Available at AIR Website

• www.airweb.org
• Training
• Web-based Tutorials
• Webinars

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IPEDS Web Tools
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IPEDS COOL

• Is a direct link to information on nearly 9,000
  postsecondary institutions in the United States.
• COOL includes colleges, universities, and
  community colleges, as well as trade and
  technical schools.
• College Opportunities On-Line was authorized by
  Congress in 1998 to help college students, future
  students, and their parents understand the
  differences between colleges and how much it
  costs to attend college.
• Significantly revised in 2006 now includes
  ability to make institutional comparisons

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IPEDS COOL

• Designed to help college students, future
  students, and their families understand the
  differences between colleges and the price of
  attendance.

• Can be used by decision-makers to access data on
  comparison institutions.

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Institution Search

• Enables a user to search for a particular school
  by name or for a group of schools using shared
  characteristics.
• Primary search
• by Institution name
• by geographic location (multiple states or
  region)
• by instructional program (major)
• More options include
• Characteristics
• Enrollment levels
• Religious affiliation
• Distance from zip code

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Available Information

• Once selected, the data available on the
  institution is divided into ten distinct
  categories.
• General Information
• Estimate Student Expenses
• Financial Aid
• Admission
• Enrollment
• Retention / Graduation Rates
• Awards / Degrees
• Accreditation
• Campus Security

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Comparing Institutions

• Comparing institutions is a new feature added
  into the 2006 revised COOL site.
• You can select up to 4 institutions for side by
  side comparisons.
• Just like those car sales web sites!
• Two steps for creating comparisons
• Select institutions for comparison
• List the IPEDS data

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Summary and Benefits to Users

• The benefits and short-comings of COOL are
  discussed in terms of two potential target
  audiences
• Prospective students and their parents and
  families.
• Academic planners and decision makers.

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Students

• The major benefit to current and prospective
  students and their parents and families is
  information.
• IPEDS COOL provides information on more
  postsecondary institutions and more types of
  postsecondary institutions than any other source
  currently available.
• Plus, COOL provides three years of price
  information - more than any other source
  currently available.
• The addition of comparisons to COOL provides good
  consumer information.
• The major weakness is that the tool that it
  provides for comparisons without explanation.
• For example, three years of price information
  enables trend analysis comparing the price of
  attending the institution over the last 3 years.
• The student or a family member can determine if
  the cost of attendance has remained fairly
  constant or has the institution increased tuition
  over this time period.
• Help me here what is the weakness? Doesnt
  provide context of why tuition changes?

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Academic Planners Decision Makers

• The major benefit of COOL to academic planners
  and decision makers is also information.
• IPEDS COOL provides valid and reliable
  information on comparison institutions.
• COOL can be thought of as being an on-line fact
  book that is publicly available on almost all
  institutions of higher education.
• The COOL consumer information tool now allows
  side-by-side comparisons of up to four
  institutions which allows decision makers
  preliminary access to direct comparisons.

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Academic Planners Decision Makers

• The short-comings of COOL from the administrative
  perspective is that
• This tool provides only limited access to
  variables that are available within IPEDS, and
• The ability to make comparisons across
  institutions is limited (to four institutions).
• As a result, academic planners and decision
  makers need a more advanced tool that provides
  access to more IPEDS data and enables direct
  comparisons across multiple institutions.
• NCES provides such a tool for IPEDS data in the
  Peer Analysis System.

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Demonstrationhttp//collegesearch.nces.ed.gov
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Executive Peer Tool (ExPT) and IPEDS Data
Feedback Reports

• The Executive Peer Tool was developed as part of
  the project that developed the IPEDS Data
  Feedback Reports.
• The Data Feedback Report.
• The report came from an NPEC project.
• NPEC is the National Post Secondary Education
  Collaborative.
• The report is designed to be useful to
  institutional executives for comparative
  purposes.
• These reports provide each institution a context
  for examining their IPEDS data based upon a
  comparison group.
• Part of the goal of the project was to help
  improve the quality and comparability of IPEDS
  data.

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Executive Peer Tool (ExPT)

• How does ExPT work?
• ExPT leads the user through a simple,
  step-by-step process.
• The user must complete five steps
• identify a focus institution,
• pick comparison institutions (up to 100 allowed),
• pick the data they want (up to 8 variables at a
  time),
• view a statistical report (summary data and
  graph) and
• view statistical data for all institutions in the
  comparison group.

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Strengths Limitations of ExPT

• ExPT does what it was designed to do
• Provides access to executives in a straight
  forward manner.
• Provides data at institution level,
• Data are tied directly to the Data Feedback
  report, and
• ExPT does whet your appetite for more. . .
• Which leads us to some limitations of ExPT
• ExPT limits you to up to 100 schools at a time in
  your comparison group.
• You have limited options for picking peer schools
• Data are presented based on the Data Feedback
  Report chart structure.
• You may view data online only, eight variables at
  a time.

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Demonstrationhttp//nces.ed.gov/ipedspas
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Peer Analysis System

• The Peer Analysis System is a web-based tool that
  is designed to enable a user to easily retrieve
  data on a group of postsecondary institutions of
  the users choice.
• In addition, the user can compare one institution
  to a group of comparison institutions.
• The comparison institutions are selected by the
  user.
• The system allows the user to generate reports or
  files using selected IPEDS variables of interest.

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Peer Analysis System

• The Peer Analysis System include two additional
  tools, the Executive Peer Tool, and the Dataset
  Cutting Tool (DCT).
• The Dataset Cutting Tool allows
• Allows dump of raw tables or
• Allows the user to quickly create customized
  datasets.
• This tool was designed for advanced users
  additional advanced training is available.

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Flow and Sequence of the Peer Tool

• To become proficient with the Peer Analysis
  System, you need to understand the flow and
  sequence of the Peer Analysis System.
• The flow and sequence of the Peer Analysis System
  is designed around the steps you need to complete
  while using the peer tool. The steps include
• Select a level of access
• If necessary login to the peer tool
• Select the either the Peer Analysis System or the
  Dataset Cutting Tool
• Identify a LinchPin institution
• Construct a comparison group
• Prepare your analysis
• Let us look more closely at the flow
• of each of these steps

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Flow and Sequence of the Peer Analysis System

• Select the level of access that you desire to the
  Peer Analysis System.
• Three levels of access exist.
• Each level provides access to different years of
  data and as a result has different levels of
  security.
• If necessary login to the peer tool.
• Different login procedures are necessary for the
  varying levels of access.
• Choose the Peer Analysis System by identifying a
  LinchPin institution
• A Linch Pin Institution is the institution that
  you want to compare to other comparison
  institutions.
• In most instances, the Linch Pin is usually your
  own institution.
• Construct a comparison group
• Usually your predefined comparison group.
• Prepare your analysis
• Generate the reports or files.

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Data Release Stages

• Pre-release login at collection level
• Data are reviewed and perturbed
• Locked institutions are migrated to PAS
• Data available for peer comparisons only
• Early release login at institution level
• All institutions are migrated to PAS
• Data available for peer comparisons only
• Final release login at guest level
• Data are imputed and fully adjudicated
• No restrictions on data use

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Demonstration http//nces.ed.gov/ipedspas
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• Dataset Cutting Tool (DCT)
• For one data year
• download entire IPEDS data files
• Custom-build large datasets, selecting mix of
  schools, surveys, variables
• Download datasets for analysis off-line using
  Excel, SPSS, SAS, or STATA

• Peer Analysis System (PAS)
• With selected schools variables
• rank schools by variable
• calculate new variables
• create standard and custom reports
• View/download data, reports, graphs

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Comparing PAS DCT
Schools 4 1,200 No Limit
Surveys 1 or more 1 or more
Variables 1 250 No Limit
Years of Data 1 or more per survey 1 per session
Analysis within Application Calculated variables, rankings, summary statistics, graphs, etc. None
Analysis after Exiting Download in csv format for use with spreadsheet Download csv, SPSS, SAS or STATA data files
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DCT Options

1. Create a customized IPEDS dataset of selected
   variables from one or more survey components
2. Download entire IPEDS survey data files

Both options provide dictionary syntax for
importing data into SAS, SPSS, or STATA
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3 Steps for Creating a Custom Dataset

1. Select the schools for which you want data
2. Choose the year of data you need
3. Select variables from one or more survey
   components

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Downloading Custom Dataset Files

• Create Subdirectory/Folder to receive DCT
  output, e.g., C\DCT
• (2) Select output from drop-down list, one at a
  time, and save in subdirectory
• (3) Use DCT Back Button to return to output page
  to get each file
• (4) Download data file, read program (syntax),
  dictionary

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Demonstration http//nces.ed.gov/ipedspas
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DAS is not PAS!!!

• In PAS
• The rows are individual institutions
• User defines the columns by selecting other IPEDS
  variables
• The DAS
• Is a table generator
• Which produces aggregated data
• The user creates or modifies table parameter
  files (TPFs) by tagging
• Row variables
• Column variables and specifying
• Spanner variables, Filters, etc.

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The DAS Web Site

• The vehicle for public access to education survey
  data collected by the U.S. Department of
  Education.
• Comprehensive source for tables, findings, and
  reports generated by NCES researchers.
• Data Analysis System On Line (DASOL) enables
  users to generate their own tables.

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Demonstration http//nces.ed.gov/das