RESEARCH TOOLS, TIPS, AND RESOURCES FOR FINANCIAL AID ADMINISTRATORS

1. RESEARCH TOOLS, TIPS, AND RESOURCES FOR FINANCIAL AID ADMINISTRATORS • PRESENTERS • Mary Ann Coughlin, Springfield College, MA • Bonnie Joerschke, Purdue University, IN • Barry Simmons, Virginia Polytechnic • Institute & State University, VA SASFAA PRECONFERENCE WORKSHOP, FEBRUARY 11, 2007, NASHVILLE, TN

2. INTRODUCTION AGENDA 9:00 a.m. Introduction and Goals 9:10 a.m. Why Conduct Research 9:30 a.m. COOL Demonstration 10:00 a.m. EXPT Demonstration 10:30 a.m. BREAK 10:45 a.m. PAS Demonstration 12:00 p.m. LUNCH 12:45 p.m. National/Regional/State Sources 1:15 p.m. Institutional Sources 1:30 p.m. Research Tools 2:00 p.m. Hands On Exercises 2:50 p.m. Wrap Up 3:00 p.m. Close

3. GOALS • Become familiar with information on your campus, the internet, or from external sources that will help you answer questions about your aid recipients or funds. • Learn how to build comparative data. • Provide an overview of available and frequently used financialaid databases and their limitations.

4. WHY CONDUCT RESEARCH?

5. Why Research? • Compliance • Federal Quality Assurance Program • FISAP • Donor Relations • Defend/Support/Eliminate Programs • Program Creation

6. Benchmarking • Comparison group can be • Peer • Aspirational • Competitor • Predetermined

7. Program Creation Process • Determine/Goal Outcome • Build Conceptual Framework • Secure Funding • Develop Infrastructure • Implement Infrastructure • Evaluate Infrastructure Outcomes

8. IPEDSTHE INTEGRATED POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION DATA SYSTEM

9. LUNCH

10. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES

11. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES • Common Data Set – CDS • Postsecondary Education Opportunity: Tom Mortenson’s Pell Report Card • U.S. Department of Education • Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) • The College Board

12. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES • Grapevine • The Institute for College Access and Success • U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics • State Grant Agencies or Higher Education Authority, Guarantors, etc. • NASFAA

13. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES Common Data Set: www.commondataset.org • Collaborative effort between colleges and publishers (College Board, Peterson’s, and U.S. News & World Report) to provide standard data items and definitions • Set of standards and definitions of data items (not a survey instrument or set of data in a database.

14. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES—COMMON DATA SET • Excellent source of information specific to an individual institution (e.g., financial need, indebtedness, need-based aid; grant or scholarship aid; self help aid, etc.) • No central location of data; must search individual school’s website for comparative data • Caution: school’s definition of a type of aid may differ from yours; requests completed data either for the prior year or estimated data for the current academic year. Be sure to compare same academic year data.

15. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES—COMMON DATA SET Sect. A General Information Sect. B Enrollment Data Sect. C First-Time Freshmen Sect. D Transfer Activity Sect. E Academic Offerings Sect. F Student Life Sect. G Expenses Sect. H Financial Aid Sect. I Faculty/Class Size Sect. J Degrees Conferred

16. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES—Common Data Set • Completing the Common Data Set” A Guide for Financial Aid Professionals, NASFAA Monograph Number 19, May 2006 • Reports on some of the concerns in collecting and reporting data • Provides advice on how to complete the college costs and financial aid reporting requirements • Provides terminology and data definitions

17. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES • Postsecondary Education Opportunity (The Mortenson Research Seminar on Public Policy Analysis of Opportunity for Postsecondary Education. • Password protected spreadsheets on the website (www.postsecondary.org) contain data on financial aid packages, gender, Pell Grants sorted by state, family income, etc.) • Source of data: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

18. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES U.S. Department of Education • Numerous data bases besides COOL/EXPT or PAS. Including • NSLDS • COD Reports • National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) • National Education Data Resource Center (NEDRC) tables • Quick Tables • Data Analysis System (DAS) • Central Processor: draws a sample of applicants quarterly for QC and research purposes

19. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES • Federation of State Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) www.uspirg.org/home/ • Data on student aid, college costs, textbook prices, and student debt • Links to individual state PIRGs • The College Board www.collegeboard.org • Trends in College Pricing: national trends in the cost of attendance; tuition discounts, etc. • Trends in Student Aid: annual data on amount of financial aid distributed to students

20. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES • Grapevine www.coe.ilstu.edu/grapevine • Reports on state tax appropriations for the new fiscal year • Available tables include: state tax appropriations per capita; appropriations per $1,000 of personal income; state rankings on one, two, five and ten-year percentage changes; annual average five-year percentage changes in state tax appropriations; and state tax appropriations by region. • Also includes a 50-state summary table showing total state tax appropriations for the current year and percent of changes over time (1, 2, 5, and 10 years).

21. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES • The Institute for College Access and Success www.economicdiversity.org • First publicly available source of campus-level data on student income, race and ethnicity, and student loan usage that can be compared over time and across institutions. • 200 different data elements for 3,000 colleges • Summary page available for institutional profiles • Comparison tool builds tables from selected variables at the state, regional or national level. Table can be printed or downloaded into Excel files.

22. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES • U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics www.bls.gov/cpi. Provides an inflation calculator as well as individual indices for goods and services

23. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES • State Grant Agencies or Authorities, Guarantors, etc. • Source of state level data for colleges and universities • For example: The Indiana Commission for Higher Education provides a series of reports that contain information about Indiana postsecondary education.  • The “CHE Dynamic Report” soon to be available will allow users to make multiple selections for personalizing report information and analysis.  

24. NATIONAL/REGIONAL/STATE SOURCES • National Assn. of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) www.nasfaa.org • Annotated Bibliography of Student Financial Aid: summaries of student aid research • National Profile of Federal Student Aid Programs: information about each program, number of students served and appropriations. • Research Tools, Tips & Resources for Financial aid Administrators • Staffing and Salary Tools & Models • So You’d Like to Do Some Research—An Introduction to the New ERIC (Education Resources Information Center)

25. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES

26. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES • Annual Reports • Data Digests • Fact Books • Data Warehouses • Digital Dashboard (Desktop)

27. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES • Annual Report • Key document that delivers information about your department • Various formats • Can be overwhelming task to create one • Tips: • Create a schedule for writing and production • Involve members of staff--you do not have to do it alone • Determine your target audience • Determine the theme/content of your report

28. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES • Annual Report • Excellent on-line source: “Creating an Annual Report in Microsoft Word”, State Library of Iowa, www.silo.lib.ia.us/for-ia-libraries/tell-library-story/Props/annual-reports/index.htm • They state: “Annual reports are used by all kinds of institutions. . .as a public relations piece. They are a way of being accountable and proving your value. They can tell statistical stories, but they should also include some of the memorable highlights of the year…”

29. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—ANNUAL REPORT

30. INSTITUTIONAL RESOURCES—ANNUAL REPORT

31. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—ANNUAL REPORT

32. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—ANNUAL REPORT

33. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—ANNUAL REPORT

34. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—ANNUAL REPORT

35. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—DATA DIGESTS • Used by many post secondary institutions as their official source of data. • Purdue University—West Lafayette Data Digest provides information on: • General facts and figures • Student data • Instruction and student life • Faculty and staff data • Finance facilities • Research www.purdue.edu/DATADIGEST/

36. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—DATA DIGESTS

37. INSTITIUTIONAL SOURCES—DATA DIGESTS

38. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—DATA DIGESTS

39. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—DATA DIGESTS

40. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES—DATA DIGESTS

41. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES • Fact Books • Similar to Data Digests: a structured presentation of information about the institution frequently requested by students, faculty, staff, and other publics. • Data Warehouses • Computer-based information systems that contain data that originated from another application or an external system or source.

42. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES • Data Warehouses • Managers use them to extract information quickly and easily • “Read only”, integrated databases designed to answer comparative and “what if” questions • Unlike operational databases that are set up to handle transactions and are kept up to date as of the last transaction, data warehouses are analytical, subject-oriented and structured to aggregate transactions as a snapshot in time. Useful in analyzing historical transaction data to detect patterns and trends. Source: Minnesota State Archives at www.mnhs.org/preserve/records/dwintro.html

43. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES • Digital Dashboard (Desktop) • Resembles a car’s dashboard, organizing and presenting information that is easy to read. • Integrates information from various components into a dashboard • Graphics turn volumes of data into something easy to read and understand. Helps the user focus on data important to their operation. • Many companies offer dashboard technology (e.g., Microsoft).

44. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES • Digital Dashboards: additional reading • “Digital Dashboards: Driving Higher Education Decisions”, Educause Center For Applied Research, Research Bulletin, Volume 2003, Issue 19, Sept. 16, 2003. • “Tracking Key Performance Indicators with a Digital Dashboard”, by Leonard Gude, NASFAA Student AidTranscript, Volume 17, No. 2, 2006.

45. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES

46. TOOLS

47. TOOLS • ISIR Analysis Tool • Designed by Federal Student Aid (FSA) to help financial aid administrators improve the accuracy of ISIR information used to determine student eligibility for need-based aid. • Use by non-QA schools does not release them from federal verification requirements.

48. TOOLS • ISIR Analysis Tool • Steps to conduct a meaningful analysis of changes in ISIR data • Define the goal of your analysis • Determine relevant records to be analyzed • Decide which reports to run • Run the reports and review results • Apply improvements • Participant’s Guide located at ifap.ed.gov/qahome/guidance.html

49. TOOLS • Excel • Trend Analysis • Comparative Analyses • Charts and Graphs for Annual Reports • Digital Dashboards • Pivot Tables

50. Tools • Access • Crystal Reports • Brio • Excel - Pivot Table