VT Census Case Studies : Department of Education - Federal Student Loan Program

Created by ziemer on 12 Aug 2015

Brief Overall Description of the Dataset: 

Student aid data contains application volume reports, Title IV Program Volume by School, Federal Student Loan Portfolios, and Default rates. School data contains data pertaining to School Eligibility and Participation and School Compliance.

Link: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/data-center/student 

Date Inventory Completed: 6/16/15

Screening

  • Is the data collected opinion-based?
  • Is the data collection recurring (must be collected at least annually)?
  • Is there data available for 2013?
  • For Education: Is the data collected at least the school level? 
  • Can we access the data by August 15th?
  • Can the data be linked to other education/workforce datasets (e.g., K-12, higher education, workforce)?

If applicable, what types of schools does it cover (e.g., public, private, charter)?

Public, private, and proprietary

 

Purpose

  • What is the purpose of the organization collecting the data?

To make it easier to get money for higher education.

  • Why is it collected and how does the organization use it?

Student Aid Data: “help you understand more information about Title IV aid applicants, recipients, and disbursements.”

School data: “provides information about schools participating in the Title IV programs”

 

Federal Family Education Loan Program Lender and Guaranty Agency Reports: “provide information about the FFEL program as well as important guaranty agency information”

Business Information Resources: “provide documents relating the Federal Student Aid management and business processes, such as contracts and performance plans.”

  • Who else uses the data?

Education administrators, stakeholders, and policymakers

  • Who do they sell the data to?

NA


Method

  • What is the data collection method? 

Since FAFSA is the largest provider of student financial aid in the nation, they already have most of the data. It is not specified how the get other aid data from higher education schools.

  • What is the type of data collected? 

Administrative Data

  • If designed, who created the questions?

N/A

  • What is the raw source of the collected data (prior to any aggregation)? 

Self-report for their data and then must be third-party report to get additional aid information about schools.

Description

  • What is the general topic of the data (1-2 words)?

Student Funding

  • What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available?

2006-2015

  • Is data collected and available periodically?

Data is collected yearly, quarterly, and weekly, just depends on the variable.

  • How soon after a reference period ends can a data source be prepared and provided? 

It depends on the variable. Some are available the week after (i.e. reinstated schools) and some take a year or two (i.e. Proprietary School Revenue Percentages)

Selectivity

  • What is the universe (e.g., population) that the data represents?

All public, private, and proprietary higher education institutions.

Accessibility

  • How is the data accessed? 

All data can be downloaded as .csv from website.  API  for apps is available, raw data is also available for purchase

  • Is it open data?

Yes

  • Any legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source?

No

  • Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

No

Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? NO

Explanation: It does not contain individual level data.


Full Inventory 

Description

  • What is the general contents of the data source?

School-level

  • Features
    • What is the temporal nature of the data: longitudinal, time-series, or one time point?

Time-series

    • Geospatial? If Yes, at what level?

 School can be mapped to location.

Metadata

  • Is there information available to assess the transparency and soundness of the methods to gather the data for our purposes?

No

  • Is there a description of each variable in the source along with their valid values?

Yes

  • Are there unique IDs for unique elements that can be used for linking data?

Yes

  • Is there a data dictionary or codebook?

Yes, however there are lots of data sets so they are not all posted in the folder.

Selectivity

  • What unit is represented at the record level of the data source?

School

  • Does this universe match the stated intentions for the data collection? If not, what has been included or excluded and why?

Yes, it includes all private, public, and proprietary higher education institutions giving out loans and aid.

  • What is the sampling technique used (if applicable)? 

NA

  • What was the coverage?

NA

Stability/Coherence

  • Were there any changes to the universe of data being captured (including geographical areas covered) and if so what were they?

Yes, some schools get re-opened and some close.

  • Were there any changes in the data capture method and if so what were they? 

No

  • Were there any changes in the sources of data and if so what were they? 

No

Accuracy

  • Any known sources of error?

Unknown

  • Describe any quality control checks performed by the data’s owner.

Unknown

 

Accessibility

  • Any records or fields collected, but not included in data source, such as for confidentiality reasons)? 

No

  • Is there a subset of variables and/or data that is must be obtained through a separate process? If yes, is there a separate legal, regulatory, or administrative restrictions on accessing the data source? Cost? - One time or annual or project based payment?

No

Privacy and security

  • Was consent given by participant? If so, how was consent given?

NA

  • Are there legal limitations or restrictions on the use of the data? 

No

  • What confidentiality policies does the source have? 

Cannot request any personally identifiable information. They only data available is what they have on their website.

 

Research

  • What research has been done with this dataset? (e.g., impact of policies, predictors of student success)

They have some fact sheets available and publications about how to prepare and pay for college.

  • Include any links to research if provided:

https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/resources#college-prep-and-pay 

  • List any other data use notes provided by the supplier.

NA

Describe any other notes you have or any gaps/concerns you see with this dataset: None, this data is pretty straight forward. They also have some FAFSA data available on their website as it pertains to how many students within a highschool applied for aid.