VT Census Case Studies : South Carolina Higher Education

Created and last modified by ziemer on 27 May 2015
Variables included in the Dataset:

K-12

  • Demographics
  • School
  • District
  • Attendance/Dropout
  • Grades/GPA
  • Courses
  • Test scores
  • ACT/SAT
  • Disciplinary action
  • Teacher info (salaries, etc.)

Higher Education

  • Demographics 
  • Type of college
  • Enrollment
  • Courses
  • Major
  • Grades
  • Tuition/Scholarships

Workforce

  • Demographics
  • Salary
  • Industry

Link: http://www.che.sc.gov/DataPublications.aspx 

 

Date Inventory Completed: 5/22/15

Screening

  • Is there data available for 2013?

  • Can we access the data by August 15th? Unknown. Aggregate data available immediately, have called and emailed with regards to accessing student-level data.

Does this dataset appear to meet our needs for the Census study? UNDECIDED

Explanation: It is not clear if the student-level data will be available by August 15th. The data links K-12 with Higher Ed, but it is not clear if it also is linked with workforce information. Data includes residency classification.

Update 5/26: Spoke with Camille Brown, who is in charge of data requests. She said they do not maintain student ID’s through higher education nor with workforce (they use SS for that).  They do not have GPA or course enrollment data. However, they do have anonymized student data for the past 20 years from the 33 public institutions and “many of the independent institutions”.

Full Inventory 

Purpose

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

“The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education will promote quality and efficiency in the state system of higher education with the goal of fostering economic growth and human development in South Carolina.”

  • Who else uses the data? (make a note if they sell the data to companies)

Unknown


Description

  • What is the general topic of the data?
  • K-12 Student Information
  • Higher Education Student Information
  • Workforce Information
  • Longitudinal Education Information (includes K-12, Higher Ed, and/or Workforce)
  • What are the earliest and latest dates for which data is available? 

2000-2014

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

 This is not specified, but data is updated within less than a year since some 2014 and all 2013 data is available.


Method

  • What is the data collection method (portal, other)?

Unknown

  • What is the raw source of the collected data (teacher, superintendent)?

Unknown

 

Selectivity (conversely, the representativeness)

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

Depends on the data set, but public and sometimes private institutes in South Carolina. There is both undergraduate and graduate data.


Stability/Coherence

  • Note any changes to the universe of data being captured (e.g., including private schools).

Unknown

  • Note any changes to the data capture method or sources of data.

Unknown

 

Metadata

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

Yes, there is a very thorough “Higher Education Management Information System (CHEMIS)” Data Dictionary that is available and describes each data and what the variables are.

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

Yes

  • Can K-12 be linked to higher ed or higher ed to workforce?

Can be linked to K-12, unclear as to whether or not it can be linked to workforce

  • Links to codebooks:

http://www.che.sc.gov/CHE_Docs/Finance/CHEMIS/CHEMIS_DATA_DICTIONARY.pdf 


Accuracy

  • Any known sources of error? 

Not stated

  • Describe any quality control checks performed by the state (or data manager). 

Not stated

 

Accessibility

  • How is the school-level data accessed (note if it needs to be screen scraped)? 

All available for .csv download.

  • How is the student-level data accessed?

Camille Brown (803-737-2149) has been contacted as she is in charge of data requests. There is no other information available online about this.

  • Note if IRB is needed or any other restrictions on accessing data.

N/A

  • Any records or fields collected, but not included in data source? 

Unknown

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

Unknown


Privacy and security

  • Note any confidentiality policies or legal limitations other than FERPA: 

N/A

  • What do they consider personally identifiable information? 

Student names


Research

  • What research has been done with this dataset?

This data set appears to primarily be used for annual reports conducted the South Carolina Commission of Higher Education, such as 2011 Facilities Statistical Abstract, Annual Report on Terminated and Approved Programs, etc.


Describe any other notes you have or any gaps/concerns you see with this dataset: