Integrated Postsecondary Education Data

System

A Primer

IIPS Summer ConferenceJuly 26, 2006

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

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.”

IPEDS Surveys

•9 7 Components– General Information

• Institutional Characteristics

– Student Surveys• Enrollment• Completions• Graduation Rates• Student Financial Aid

– Resource Surveys• Finance • Human Resources

X

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

How Are IPEDS Data Used?

• National Research/Reporting

• COOL• Higher Education

Reauthorization Act• Postsecondary Education

Commission

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

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@rti.org

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

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

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

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)

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

Contact the Help Desk if…

• You have ANY questions• You haven’t received your

UserID and password• You think your list of

applicable surveys is not correct

• You think a survey status is not correct

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

Web-based Data Tools

• IPEDS COOL • Executive Peer Tool • IPEDS Peer Analysis System

– Peer tool– Dataset cutting tool

• IPEDS DAS– Table generator– Tables library

Additional Resources Available at AIR Website

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

IPEDS Web Tools

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

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.

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

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

– Federal Student Loan Default Rates.

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

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.

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? Doesn’t provide context of why tuition changes?

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.

• 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.

Academic Planners & Decision Makers

Demonstration

http://collegesearch.nces.ed.gov

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.

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:

1)identify a focus institution,2)pick comparison institutions (up

to 100 allowed),3)pick the data they want (up to 8

variables at a time), 4)view a statistical report (summary

data and graph); and5)view statistical data for all

institutions in the comparison group.

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.

Demonstration

http://nces.ed.gov/ipedspas

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 user’s 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.

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.

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:

1. Select a level of access2. If necessary login to the peer tool3. Select the either the Peer Analysis System or the

Dataset Cutting Tool4. Identify a LinchPin institution5. Construct a comparison group6. Prepare your analysis

• Let us look more closely at the flow of each of these steps…

Flow and Sequence of the Peer Analysis System

1. 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.

2. If necessary login to the peer tool.• Different login procedures are necessary for the varying

levels of access.

3. 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.

4. Construct a comparison group• Usually your predefined comparison group.

5. Prepare your analysis• Generate the reports or files.

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

Demonstration

http://nces.ed.gov/ipedspas

• 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

• Dataset Cutting Dataset Cutting Tool (DCT)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

ComparinComparingg

PASPAS DCTDCT

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

DCT OptionsDCT Options1.1. CreateCreate aa customizedcustomized

IPEDS datasetdataset of selected variables from one or more survey components

2.2. Download entireDownload entire IPEDS survey data filesdata files

Both options provide dictionary & syntax for importing data into SAS, SPSS, or STATA

33 Steps for Creating a Steps for Creating a Custom Dataset:Custom Dataset:

1. Select the schoolsschools for which you want data

2. Choose the yearyear of data you needdata you need

3. Select variablesvariables from one or more survey components

Downloading Custom Dataset Downloading Custom Dataset FilesFiles

(1) Create Subdirectory/FolderSubdirectory/Folder to receive DCT output, e.g., “C:\DCT”

(2) Select outputSelect output from drop-down list, one at a time, and save in subdirectory

(3) Use DCT BackDCT Back ButtonButton to return to output page to get each file

(4) Download datadata file, readread programprogram (syntax), & dictionarydictionary

Demonstration

http://nces.ed.gov/ipedspas

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.

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.

Demonstration

http://nces.ed.gov/das