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

2. 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

3. 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.”

4. X   IPEDS Surveys 9 7 Components General Information Student Surveys
Institutional Characteristics
Student Surveys
Enrollment
Completions
Graduation Rates
Student Financial Aid
Resource Surveys
Finance
Human Resources  

5. 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

6. How Are IPEDS Data Used? National Research/Reporting COOL
Higher Education Reauthorization Act
Postsecondary Education Commission

7. 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

8. 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 or

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. Keyholder Responsibilities
Register, and keep contact information current
Receive all 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)

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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 you receive

16. Web-based Data Tools IPEDS COOL Executive Peer Tool
IPEDS Peer Analysis System
Peer tool
Dataset cutting tool
IPEDS DAS
Table generator
Tables library

17. Additional Resources Available at AIR Website
Training
Web-based Tutorials
Webinars

18. IPEDS Web Tools

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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

22. 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.

23. 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

24. 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.

25. 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?

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. Demonstration http://collegesearch.nces.ed.gov

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. 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.

32. Demonstration http://nces.ed.gov/ipedspas

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. 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…

36. 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.

37. 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
Final release: login at guest level
Data are imputed and fully adjudicated
No restrictions on data use

38. Demonstration http://nces.ed.gov/ipedspas

39. Dataset Cutting Tool (DCT) Peer Analysis System (PAS)
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

40. PAS DCT Comparing Schools 4 – 1,200 No Limit Surveys 1 or more
Variables
1 – 250
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

41. DCT Options
Create a customized IPEDS dataset of selected variables from one or more survey components
Download entire IPEDS survey data files
Both options provide dictionary & syntax for importing data into SAS, SPSS, or STATA

42. 3 Steps for Creating a Custom Dataset:
Select the schools for which you want data
Choose the year of data you need
Select variables from one or more survey components

43. 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

44. Demonstration http://nces.ed.gov/ipedspas

45. DAS is not PAS!!! In PAS… The DAS…
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.

46. 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.

47. Demonstration http://nces.ed.gov/das