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#23-3Title: NCES Provides Instructions for Creating Custom Comparison Groups for 2006 IPEDS Data Feedback Report Prepared: April 17, 2006 Action Needed: Optional Comparison Groups Must Be Submitted by June 30, 2006 Summary In fall 2006, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) will send the 2006 Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Data Feedback Report to the chief administrators at institutions that submitted data during the 2005-06 IPEDS data collections. These annual reports, originally sent in 2004, include graphs of selected indicators based on IPEDS data that compare the focus institution and other institutions with similar characteristics. The purpose of the report is to provide the institution's leadership with management tools. Hopefully, the report also will facilitate discussions between institutional executives and IPEDS survey respondents that will contribute to the improvement of IPEDS data quality, use and comparability. Each institution has a default comparison group defined by the NCES, but has the option of defining its own custom comparison group by June 30, 2006. Current Status On March 21, 2006, the NCES posted instructions for creating and submitting custom comparison groups for the 2006 IPEDS Data Feedback Reports and the 2006 Executive Peer Tool (ExPT) (see http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/comp_gp.asp). Custom comparison groups for the 2006 reports must be submitted by the IPEDS keyholder by June 30, 2006. Institutions are not required to submit custom groups. If an institution submitted a custom comparison group for the 2005 report, that group will be used for the 2006 report unless the institution deletes or changes it. If no custom group was submitted by the institution for 2005 or 2006, the IPEDS system will generate a group for the institution, similar to the group generated for the 2005 report. A custom comparison group can be created using either the IPEDS Executive Peer Tool (ExPT) or the Peer Analysis System (PAS). Then the comparison group can be uploaded to the Web-based data collection system. Your custom comparison group can contain whichever institutions you want, as long as it contains:
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Implications for Institutions The IPEDS Data Feedback Report and the ExPT are intended to encourage institutions to use IPEDS data for their internal decision-making; however, the selected calculations and comparison groups may not be appropriate for all institutions. Institutions may want to review the information in the reports to see if the measures are relevant to them. Some institutions found that investing the time and effort required to submit their own comparison groups in place of the automatically generated comparison groups for the 2005 IPEDS Data Feedback Report greatly increased the usefulness of the reports for comparison purposes. Timeline Fall, 2004 - First print version of the NPEC IPEDS Data Feedback Report mailed to institutional CEOs October 25, 2004 - First AIR Web Seminar on the NPEC IPEDS Data Feedback Report and the Executive Peer Tool December 15, 2004 - Repeat of AIR Web Seminar March 23-24, 2005 - Technical Review Panel will discuss plans for upcoming Data Feedback Reports May 23, 2005 - AIR Web Seminar on submitting custom peer groups for IPEDS Data Feedback Reports Fall, 2005 - 2005 Second Data Feedback Reports mailed to institutional CEOs December, 2005 - NCES asked for comments for the 2006 IPEDS Data Feedback Reports March, 2006 - NCES released instructions for creating and submitting custom comparison groups for the 2006 IPEDS Data Feedback Reports June 30, 2006 - Last day for submitting custom comparison groups for the 2006 IPEDS Data Feedback Reports Additional Resources The NCES notice about creating and submitting custom comparison groups for the 2006 IPEDS Data Feedback Reports is available at http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/comp_gp.asp. Complete information about IPEDS is available at: http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds. The 2005 report is available online at http://nces.ed.gov/ipedspas/. (Follow the link to Executive Peer Tool, agree to the data usage terms, enter your institution's name, and click on the link at the top of the Step 2 page that reads: "Click here to view and print the IPEDS Data Feedback Report.") Previous Related AIR Alerts AIR Alert #23-Update #2, January 20, 2006: NCES Seeks Comments on IPEDS Data Feedback Report AIR Alert #23-Update #1, February 21, 2005: The NCES Seeks Comments on NPEC IPEDS Data Feedback Report and Executive Peer Tool AIR Alert#23, August 6, 2004: NPEC Data Feedback Project Author: Coordinated by the Higher Education Data Policy Committee. All opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Association for Institutional Research. |