Filling Holes and a Whole Lot More with Evergreen/Enterprise Strategies

It is what it is  IPEDS—Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System—is run by the National Center for Education Statistics.  Categories of stats include:  Enrollments  Institutional Costs  Financial Aid  Human Resources  Program Completion/Graduation Rates

What you can do with your data  Access, analyze, and mine national data  Construct customized data sets  Download full data files  Generate reports, including statistics and trends

What you can do in IPEDS  Create an institution group—basically the list of schools you want to compare  Create a list of variables you want to compare  Retrieve data for a single institution using “Look up an Institution”  Download survey data files so that you can manipulate the data yourself

What you can do in IPEDS (2)  Compare individual institutions  Create group statistics for a group of institutions for one or more IPEDS variables and generate a summary report (including bar graphs)  Rank institutions on a single variable  View a trend for one variable for one or more institutions (create bar graphs)  Generate pre-defined reports

Let’s take a little trip...

The $64,000 Question is “So What?”  E1 (evergreen) I can create a dozen quick graphs during a newsroom lull to save as evergreen material or use the information directly to create a standalone graph on deadline. Note that I will have to import the data into Excel to create the graph. But it’s a quick fix for an unexpected hole. Or I can create a standing feature like “By the Numbers” to ensure I have meaningful graphics to enhance design.

The $64,000 Question is “So What?”  E2 (enterprise) I can use the data as the basis for enterprise stories (the kind administrators hate) that can answer questions like whether students are getting a good return on their education at my university or whether athletes are being exploited or whether there’s gender or racial bias in the faculty ranks.

IPEDS Caveats  Rule 1: Remember that the data isn’t the story—it’s the beginning of the story.  Make sure you can speak the language and understand the numbers.  Learning to use the IPEDS site requires a learning curve, so don’t wait until 10 minutes to deadline to try to learn to use it. Give yourself time to play.

Sites to know  DSManual.pdf DSManual.pdf  