IR in the Know

IR in the Know keeps you up to date on current and emerging issues related to higher education data collection, analyses, and reporting with a brief summary of topics and links to more detailed information. The Policy Watch section alerts readers to developing policy news and topics that may warrant attention over the next few months. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. If you discover a resource or article you think might be useful to other IR professionals, please send an email to irintheknow@airweb.org.

IPEDS TRP Report: Selected Outcomes of the Advisory Committee on Measures of Student Success

Published: May 11, 2012

Feedback is requested on suggestions from the IPEDS Technical Review Panel (TRP) #37 report, “Selected Outcomes of the Advisory Committee on Measures of Student Success,” which is posted on the TRP webpage (under the “Recent Summaries Open for Comment” section). Comments should be sent to ipedsTRPcomment@rti.org by May 29, 2012. The TRP suggestions include: (1) a revised definition of Degree/Certificate-seeking Student that spells out groups to include for IPEDS reporting; (2) IPEDS reporting of progression and completion measures for cohorts of part-time students; and (3) alternative reporting schedules for part-time cohorts.

Transfer and Mobility: A National View of Pre-Degree Student Movement in Postsecondary Institutions (Melodie Christal)

The second in a series of Signature Reports from the National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) Research Center, Transfer and Mobility: A National View of Pre-Degree Student Movement in Postsecondary Institutions examines students’ increasingly complex transfer patterns. Most data analyses currently view students as progressing linearly through college at one institution and treating students who do not receive a degree at that institution as dropouts. NSC found one-third of the fall 2006 first-time students changed or transferred institutions before earning a degree, a rate consistent across all types of institutions excluding the for-profit sector. Of those students who transfer, 37% transfer in their second year, and 22% transfer as late as their fourth or fifth years. In addition, 25% transfer more than one time. Given the mobility of students, the authors suggest postsecondary education should investigate new approaches and metrics to better inform students and institutions about the range of successful enrollment patterns.

The Role of Pell Grants in Access, Persistence, and Completion (Katie Zaback)

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) released the Issue Brief, The Role of Pell Grants in Access, Persistence, and Completion that examines the shifting policy emphasis from college access to college completion and student success, and the potential consequences for students. The brief suggests access itself is not enough to ensure attainment of a higher education credential, and while Pell grants and student aid programs reduce financial barriers, low- and moderate-income students continue to struggle with persistence and completion. It questions whether the benefits of education should be measured in terms of individual success or as a return on societal investment. The report also explores several approaches to help improve student success.

The For-Profit Postsecondary School Sector: Nimble Critters or Agile Predators? (Melodie Christal)

The Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment (CAPSEE) report, The For-Profit Postsecondary School Sector: Nimble Critters or Agile Predators?, uses data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) longitudinal survey to compare students attending for-profit institutions with students attending public or private nonprofit institutions. For-profit institutions are more successful than public and nonprofit institutions at retaining students in their first year and getting them to complete short programs at the certificate and associate levels. On the other hand, students enrolled in for-profit institutions have lower earnings six years after entering postsecondary education as well as higher debt levels and default rates on their student loans. This paper is also available in the winter 2012 issue of Journal of Economic Perspectives, 26 (1), 139–164.

State Higher Education Finance FY 2011 (Katie Zaback)

The State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) annual report State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) provides a comprehensive review of state and local funding and enrollment trends for public higher education. Compiled from data collected from each state, SHEF FY 2011 shows relatively flat state funding for higher education in FY 2011 over 2010, and below the FY 2008 level. Due to continued enrollment growth, FY 2011 educational appropriations per FTE fell to $6,290 and net tuition revenues per FTE reached $4,774. These figures represent the lowest educational appropriations per FTE in inflation-adjusted terms and the highest share from tuition in the 25 years of the study. Supplemental data are also available on the SHEEO website.

National Center for Education Statistics (Ellen Peters)

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) First Look report, Enrollment in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2010; Financial Statistics, Fiscal Year 2010; and Graduation Rates, Selected Cohorts, 2002-07, (NCES 2012-280) presents findings from five components of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) spring 2011 data collection: student financial aid, enrollment by selected characteristics; graduation rates within 150 and 200 percent of program completion; and finance, such as revenues and operating expenditures. The report’s data are available through the IPEDS Data Center and the College Navigator for more than 7,000 postsecondary education institutions that participate in Title IV federal student financial aid programs.

CUPA-HR (College and University Personnel Association for Human Resources) (Melodie Christal)

CUPA-HR conducts several surveys on compensation of higher education positions each year and released new reports in February (AAUP) and March (National Faculty and Two-Year College Faculty) of this year. Information on each survey listed below is available at the CUPA-HR website under the Survey tab. CUPA also offers DataOnDemand, a hands-on application that provides institutions aggregate information for peer comparison groups they create. The prices for these reports and services are available on the CUPA website.

AAUP Annual Report on the Economic Status of the Profession (Melodie Christal)
Each year, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) collects salary and benefit data for full-time instructional faculty from colleges and universities through the AAUP Faculty Compensation Survey. A Very Slow Recovery, 2011-12, presents the most recent survey results. National and regional data are provided as well as institutional data. This year’s report also addresses the rising price of college tuition and what is driving it.
The National Faculty Salary Survey for Four-Year Institutions (NFSS) provides average salary data for full-time faculty by rank (professor, associate professor, assistant professor, instructor, new assistant professors) and discipline, based on the four-digit Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) developed by the National Center for Education Statistics. Data are reported for all institutions and for public and private institutions separately.
The Two-Year College Faculty Salary Survey provides average salaries for full-time faculty by discipline at two-year institutions. Because two-year colleges have a diverse pay structure, the survey provides four options for reporting salaries: by level of education/degree, academic rank, discipline with faculty unranked, and discipline with faculty ranked.

The Administrative Compensation Survey (AdComp) collects salary and demographic data for selected administrative positions in colleges and universities. In general, positions at or above the director level are reported in this survey. The report provides a summary of median salaries by position for all institutions.

Chronicle of Higher Education Faculty Salary Database

The Chronicle of Higher Education interactive tool provides information about individual colleges and universities using data from the 2011-12 AAUP faculty salary survey and IPEDS. Some of the data available from this site are average faculty salaries by institution and rank, number of faculty, enrollment, and student-faculty ratio. While these data are available from other sources, the Chronicle of Higher Education makes the current year faculty salary data available earlier than most sources.

The Mid-Level Administrative and Professional Salary Survey collects salary and demographic data for selected mid-level positions in higher education. In general, positions below the director level are reported in this survey.

U.S. Census Bureau (Melodie Christal)

Two new U.S. Census Bureau products address education:

Educational Attainment in the United States: 2011 – The tables present national statistics on the levels of education achieved by various demographic characteristics, as well as changes over time. Data on educational attainment are derived from the question on the Current Population Survey, "What is the highest grade of school...has completed, or the highest degree...has received?"

Field of Bachelor’s Degree in the United States: 2009 – This report estimates fields of bachelor’s degrees by demographic characteristics using data from the 2009 American Community Survey. It also looks at geographic and earnings differences across fields of degree.

The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2011 (Ellen Peters)

The American Freshman: National Norms Fall 2011 report was released in January by the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) at UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute (HERI). This annual report of entering first-year students is based on the findings from the 2011 Freshman Survey and includes responses from over 200,000 first-time, full-time students at 270 colleges and universities. The report shows that fall 2011 first-time, full-time students differ from respondents in past years in their political views, academic behaviors and attitudes, resources for paying for college, and use of social networking. In addition, there were differences in the reasons students attend college by intended major and in college choice for first-generation students.

Why Access Matters: The Community College Student Body (Melodie Christal)

The American Association of Community Colleges policy brief, Why Access Matters: The Community College Student Body (2012-01 PBL), discusses the contribution of community colleges in providing access to higher education and how recent policies on completions and public returns on investment may undermine this access for many students. The brief describes the variety of students served by community colleges and explains the shortcomings of current student success measures when applied to community colleges, particularly the federal graduation rate. The brief concludes with recommended actions to ensure that access to community colleges does not deteriorate.

A Matter of Degrees: Promising Practices for Community College Student Success (Melodie Christal)

A Matter of Degrees: Promising Practices for Community College Student Success from the Center for Community College Student Engagement explores innovative, data-informed programs for educating underprepared students, engaging underserved students, and helping students from all backgrounds succeed. The Center’s multiyear project uses input from students, faculty, and college leaders to explore the relative and combined value of 13 promising educational practices, including design principals critical for student success: a strong start, clear pathways, integrated support, high expectations and high support, intensive student engagement, design for scale, and professional development.

Pathways to Success: Integrating Learning with Life and Work to Increase National College Completion (Patrick Rossol-Allison)

The Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance released the report Pathways to Success: Integrating Learning with Life and Work to Increase National College Completion outlining the barriers traditional and nontraditional college students face in completing their degrees. The report highlights best practices at higher education institutions and describes state and federal government strategies to improve student completion rates. The Advisory Committee calculates that increasing the number of successful nontraditional students will require significant modifications in the structure and delivery of higher education as well as changes to federal student aid programs. The proposed changes most relevant to institutional researchers are revisions to IPEDS to better reflect how nontraditional students complete their educational goals and the need for cooperation between different data consortia to define key data elements.

What Do Students Pay for College (Melodie Christal)

NCES Web Tables What Do Students Pay for College? (NCES 2012-263) present data on the average net price of attendance in 2006-07 and 2008-09 for two groups of first-time, full-time undergraduate students (FTFTUG): (1) grant recipients from any source, and (2) Title IV aid recipients. Under the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA), net price of attendance is calculated as the cost of attendance for FTFTUG minus the total amount of need-based grant aid and merit-based grant aid from federal, state, and institutional sources divided by the number of FTFTUG students receiving this aid. Using data from the IPEDS Institutional Characteristics and Student Financial Aid surveys, the Web Tables present information on the extent to which the average net price of attendance varies by control and level of institution for both the grant recipient group and the Title IV recipient group, and by income levels for the Title IV aid recipient group.

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Policy Watch (Melodie Christal, Christine Keller)

College Scorecard

The White House is seeking feedback on a new tool, College Scorecard, to be included in the College Affordability and Transparency Center to assist prospective students and their families in comparing colleges using five measures of college affordability and value. Comments can be submitted through the College Scorecard website.

The proposed measures include: (1) What will it cost to attend? (2) How likely am I to graduate and how long will it take? (3) Will I be able to repay my student loans after I graduate? (4) How much debt will I have when I graduate? (5) Will I be able to get a job after I graduate?

Financial Aid Shopping Sheet

In collaboration with the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has designed an example of a Financial Aid Shopping Sheet that institutions might use in presenting financial aid offers to prospective students and families. The CFPB is also requesting feedback through their website about the form and the types of information most useful when evaluating a financial aid offer.

AASCU Top 10 Higher Education State Policy Issues for 2012 (Melodie Christal)

Each year, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) lists the top 10 state issues most likely to affect public higher education during that year. The top state issue in the 2012 Policy Brief is declining state support for public higher education due to the prolonged economic downturn. Other issues listed in rank order are productivity, governance restructuring and regulatory reform, college completion, performance-based funding, tuition policy, state student grant program funding and reform, college readiness, veteran’s education, and immigration policy. In addition to the top ten issues, AASCU predicts discussions will continue on deferred maintenance funding, state level longitudinal data systems, recurring issues of teacher education, weapons on campus, and student enrollment policies.

Grapevine (Katie Zaback)

Illinois State University and the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) recently released the results of the annual Grapevine survey of state higher education appropriations for fiscal year 2012. The report shows that nationwide support for higher education declined more than 7%, and 41 states experienced declines between 2011 and 2012. This trend reflects the effects of the lasting recession and the difficulty for states to maintain current funding levels now that federal ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) funds are depleted. In fact, 29% of states are currently operating with levels of support lower than those available five years ago in fiscal year 2007. The report also shows significant variation across states with one year percentage changes (excluding ARRA funds) ranging from negative 21% to positive 12%.

Salary Survey (Ellen Peters)

The January 2012 Salary Survey of the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reports positive news regarding salary outcomes for the college class of 2011. The overall average salary for 2011 graduates is up to $41,701, 2.3% higher than the 2010 graduate’s average of $40,766. Average salaries have increased across the board, although there are greater gains in engineering and computer science than in other fields. NACE refined its data collection methodology this year, compiling data derived from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, and a master dataset developed by Job Search Intelligence. The NACE Executive Summary is available for free; the full report is available to NACE member institutions or by subscription.

Hard Time: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings: Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal (Melodie Christal)

The Center on Education and the Workforce addresses the question “Is college worth it?” in Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings: Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal. This report analyzes employment outcomes by major for recent college graduates, experienced college graduates, and graduate degrees. The authors conclude college is worth it and the best alternative for young people. Although the unemployment rate for students with new bachelor’s degrees is high at 8.9%, it is much higher for high school graduates (22.9%) and even higher for high school dropouts (31.5%). The risk of unemployment for recent college graduates varies considerably depending on the major. Architecture majors have the highest unemployment rate (13.9%) while majors in healthcare and education have the lowest rates (5.4%).

Women in Intercollegiate Sports: A Longitudinal, National Study, Thirty-Five Year Update (Mary Sapp)

This longitudinal report shows that in 2012, 40 years after the enactment of Title IX, the participation of female athletes in sports is at an all-time high with 8.7 women's teams per college and nearly 200,000 female athletes participating on over 9,000 NCAA teams. An increase in the participation of high-school girls in sports was also found. The report documents a record number of women employed in college sports: over 90% of NCAA programs have at least one female administrator, 20% of all athletic directors are female, and a record number of women are coaching women’s teams. The report notes that the proportion of females in administrative positions tends to be lower in Division I programs.

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Reports (Christine Keller)

Beginning Subbaccalaureate Students' Labor Market Experiences: Six Years Later in 2009

This set of web tables presents descriptive statistics on the spring 2009 labor market experiences of subbaccalaureate students who first entered postsecondary education in 2003–04. Data from the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study is used to identify and present the demographic and employment characteristics of certificate and associate’s degree completers and noncompleters. Labor market experiences presented include employment status as of spring 2009, unemployment spells since last enrolled, median salary earned as of spring 2009, employer-offered benefits, and job satisfaction.

America's Youth: Transitions to Adulthood

America's Youth: Transition to Adulthood (NCES 2012-026) contains statistics that address important aspects of the lives of youth, including family, schooling, work, community, and health. The transition to adulthood in the United States has changed in recent decades resulting in increased participation and attainment in education; extenuation of educational completion and subsequent delayed participation in the labor force; and delays in child rearing. This report examines numerous aspects of the lives of youth and young adults, ages 14 to 24, in the United States over the last several decades. The report features status and trend data from multiple surveys on the distribution of youth and their family structure; on school-, employment-, and health-related factors and on future plans.

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Policy Watch

President Obama’s State of the Union Address

In the January 2012 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for a comprehensive approach to keeping tuition affordable, proposing that federal student aid be tied to campus tuition policies. The White House followed up with a "fact sheet" outlining the President’s proposal.

Common Education Data Standards Version 2 Released

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) announced the Version 2 release of the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) on January 31. The CEDS project is a national, collaborative effort to develop voluntary data standards to streamline the exchange, comparison, and understanding of data within and across P-20. Version 2 of CEDS focuses on elements and modeling in the early learning, K12, and postsecondary sectors and includes domains, entities, elements, options sets, and related use cases. Version 2 of CEDS can be found at the CEDS website.

10 Questions State Legislators Should Ask About Higher Education

The American Legislative Exchange Council poses and answers policy questions in 10 Questions State Legislators Should Ask About Higher Education. Some of the issues addressed are college completion rates, student preparation for college, accessibility of a college education, college costs and affordability, how higher education is financed, academic quality, workforce preparation, improving accountability and transparency, and innovations in higher education.

Leveraging Data for College Completion

Leveraging Data for College Completion by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) documents the importance of longitudinal data systems for identifying issues, making decisions, and measuring results. The brief emphasizes the significance of linking higher education data systems to workforce data and K-12 data systems and provides effective strategies for addressing some of the challenges related to data collection and management, as well as data analysis and capacity at the state level. In highlighting the strategies, the report also incorporates several successful state efforts.

Completing College: Assessing Graduation Rates at Four-Year Colleges

The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA report, Completing College: Assessing Graduation Rates at Four-Year Colleges, introduces a new method for predicting an institution’s graduation rate using data from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey. Many institutions use basic student information such as gender, race/ethnicity, and test scores to project an expected graduation rate. By using the more detailed data from the CIRP Freshman Survey, HERI reports institutions can increase the precision of their predicted graduation rates. HERI also provides online degree completion calculators allowing institutions to evaluate how their own graduation rates can be improved using alternative scenarios.

National Student Clearinghouse Snapshot Reports

The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has published three Snapshot Reports highlighting national enrollment trends in two-year and four-year institutions based on their database, which includes 93% of the student enrollments in the United States. The Persistence Snapshot shows that students tended to stay enrolled (i.e., persist) and notes students are often misclassified as dropouts when they may have just transferred to another institution. There were notable differences in fall-to-fall persistence rates of full-time (92.5%) and part-time (71.2%) students. The Mobility Snapshot addresses students who attend more than one institution and the Concurrent Snapshot addresses overlapping student enrollment. In 2010-11, 7.7% of students enrolled in more than one institution and 3.2% enrolled concurrently at more than one institution.

Tuition and Fees in Public Higher Education in the West, 2011-2012

Tuition and Fees in Public Higher Education in the West, 2011-2012 is the latest annual report on tuition and fees from the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). This report presents tuition and mandatory fees at two-year and four-year public institutions for WICHE’S 15-state region including changes from one, five, and 10 years ago. The report includes weighted and unweighted tuition and fees averages by full-time equivalent enrollment. Enrollment-weighted averages provide a better estimate of the published price a student pays based on enrollment patterns.

Numbers of Doctorates Awarded in the United States Declined in 2010

The National Science Foundation Info Brief, Numbers of Doctorates Awarded in the United States Declined in 2010 (NSF 12-303), presents data and trends on doctorates awarded in science and engineering collected in the 2010 Survey of Earned Doctorates. As noted in the title, the number of research doctorates in 2010 was down from 2009, the first decline in doctorates awarded since 2002. This report includes demographic information on the doctorate recipients.

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

The NCES Stats in Brief: Federal Education Tax Benefits: Who Receives Them and to What Extent Do They Shape the Price of Attendance? (NCES 2012-212) examines the three types of education tax credits: the Hope tax credit, the lifetime learning tax credit, and the tuition and fees deduction. The report addresses three questions: (1) What percentage of 2007-08 undergraduates received an education tax benefit and to what extent did these benefits reduce the overall price of college? (2) Among dependent undergraduate students, how did the receipt of the education tax benefits vary by family income? (3) Among dependent undergraduate tax benefit recipients, how did the extent to which education tax benefits lowered the overall price of college attendance vary by family income? The report notes that nearly one-half of the 2007-08 undergraduates received an education tax benefit, thereby reducing college expenses on average by $700.

The NCES First Look publication, Employees in Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2010, and Salaries of Full-Time Instructional Staff, 2010–11 (NCES 2012-276), presents data from the 2010-11 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) human resources survey. The report includes the number of staff employed in Title IV postsecondary institutions in fall 2010 by primary function/occupational activity as well as salary data for full-time instructional staff. Almost 3.9 million people were employed at postsecondary institutions in fall 2010 with more than 60% employed full-time. About 2.7 million (70%) of these employees work for four-year institutions. Although the number of instructional staff has increased by 18% since 2004, the percentage of full-time faculty has decreased from 49% to 45%. The average nine-month salary is $104,000 for professors, $74,900 for associate professors, and $63,100 for assistant professors; the average salary for instructors, lecturers, and unranked faculty is about $54,000.

The NCES First Look publication, Academic Libraries: 2010 (NCES 2012-365), presents data from the 2010 Academic Libraries Survey (ALS). NCES first conducted the ALS in 1966 and began an every-other-year collection cycle in 1988. The survey focuses on library services, collections, library staff, expenditures, electronic services, and information literacy. In addition to selected survey findings, this First Look report provides information on the survey methodology, the survey instrument, and a glossary. In fall 2010, academic libraries employed almost 90,000 FTE with librarians accounting for about 30% of the total FTE. In 2009-10, academic libraries conducted approximately 34.6 million information services for individuals, including computer searches. Almost three-quarters of academic libraries now support virtual reference services.

GAO Report on Student Outcomes

The U.S. Government Accountability Office issued the postsecondary education report, Student Outcomes Vary at For-Profit, Nonprofit, and Public Schools (GAO-12-142). The report addresses research on graduation rates, employment outcomes, student loans, and default rates for students at for-profit institutions compared to those at nonprofit and public institutions. It also looks at pass rates on licensing exams for selected occupations. The study uses data primarily from the U.S. Department of Education including the Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) Longitudinal Study, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), and the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey (NPSAS), and the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).

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Policy Watch

Committee on Measures of Student Success

After a year of deliberation, the federal Committee on Measures of Student Success released its recommendations to the U.S. Department of Education in December 2011. The committee's report addresses issues that make measuring student completion rates at two-year institutions difficult and includes recommendations to the Department to collect more information about students who transfer, attend part-time, or require developmental education. While the committee's recommendations are targeted at two-year institutions, they could potentially affect four-year institutions as well.

CEDS update

Version 2.0 of the Common Education Data Standards (CEDS) will be released this month. CEDS is a voluntary standard that provides definitions and code sets for education data elements. It can improve consistency and comparability of data across institutions, states, and between education sectors. CEDS also has the potential to reduce the reporting burden for IPEDS and other reporting efforts. CEDS defines all data elements needed to complete the IPEDS student surveys, and NCES plans to develop a tool that will allow institutions to use the CEDS-defined codes to create IPEDS import files. A data mapping tool will accompany CEDS 2.0 allowing comparison of existing state data dictionaries to each other and the standard. IR offices are encouraged to discuss CEDS with their IT colleagues, ERP vendors, and other partners committed to ensuring a common understanding of educational data.