An Introduction to Using DAS Online for Institutional Research

Dr Daina Paupe Henry

College of William & Mary

VAMAP October 2007

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Purpose Of Workshop

To introduce DAS – NCES software tool “Data Analysis System”

To access features of both DAS 1.0 and 2.0

To understand the wide range of information available

To use DAS to analyze data To warn about quirks

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Goal Of This Workshop

At the end of this workshop you will have accessed three different data sets of using DAS

Done a rudimentary analysis on each Been able to print a report Been able to download a correlation

matrix for use in further analysis with SPSS or SAS

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Data Sets To Be Accessed

NCES IPEDS Institution Data (3 exercises)

NSOPF data (National Study of Post-Secondary Faculty) (1 exercise)

NPSAS data (National Post-Secondary Student Aid Study) (1 exercise)

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Why Use DAS?

Going beyond your peer group Institutional RESEARCH

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Where Is It?

http://nces.ed.gov/dasol/

Using your pc and your favorite browser, link to internet, and type in this address.

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NCES DAS Online Home Page

Two Versions of DAS (2.0 and 1.0) each with different types of data available

2.0 is a beta version (lots of surveys) 1.0 is the “old” version – limited

surveys – but it does have IPEDS. Start with 1.0 version – choose

“Overview” on right side.

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DAS Web Site Tabs

DAS Online Application User Help Center Tables Library Analysis Reports What’s New Homepage

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DAS Online

“The Data Analysis System (DAS) is a software application that allows you to produce tables and correlation matrices from NCES data sets. There is a separate DAS for each data set, but all have a consistent interface and command structure.”

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DAS Online

Each DAS can be run in two modes-Tables or Correlations.

Each is available both in a web based format or a (cumbersome) windows format.

We will be doing the on-line web based.

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DAS User Help Center

5 help topics:Tutorials.User Guide 2.0User Guide 1.0T-test ToolsTechnical Assistance

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The Tutorials

Tutorials are good. Start with simple ones – using DAS

1.0Overview of DAS is goodBuilding a simple tableCreating a lump tag

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The Users Guide 1.0

In it you will find some very useful information and examples.

USERS GUIDE also found under the HELP menu option once you actually get in the online system.

A copy of User’s Guide 1.0 is in the second section of your notebook.

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The Users Guide 2.0

Basically the same as 1.0. Has an added feature of Power Users.

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The DAS Lingo

TAGS, TPFs and CPFs Rows, Columns Cats, Lumps Cuts Means, Averages Spans, Bys, Filters

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Quick Facts

Mean includes 0, -1 Average excludes 0, -1 (gt 0) Columns are better than rows… Order of choices makes a difference

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Basic Process

Specify a COLUMN variable Specify a ROW variable Select a weight variable if necessary Run the TPF

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The Window Pop Ups (follow the bouncing ball)

Main Window Variable Information Window Tag Options Window Tag Specific Options Window TPF/CPF Window Verification Window Output Window

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The First Step

Need to get back to DAS Online Application. Choose “DAS Online Application” on Menu at top.

Choose “To Create Tables” under “Access Application” (on the right) under version 1.0.

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DAS Online 1.0 Data Sets

Early Childhood – (ECLS – Birth)Secondary (1972 seniors, 1980

Seniors)Post Secondary (IPEDS 2004, 2003,

2002)Early Childhood and Household Data

(NHES 1995)

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Short Cuts

On the top right is a short cut to the same groupings of data.

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Choosing A Data Set

Choose “Post-Secondary Institution Data in 2004”.

Use either the shortcut or scroll down.

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NCES Usage Agreement

A pop up window appears. NCES Data Usage Agreement (you

must agree or you go nowhere). Each DAS has a separate agreement. “I agree to the terms above…”

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IPEDS Post-Secondary Institution 2004 Main PageTabs on top are standard options for every

NCES data set. TPF (table parameter file) Show Save New Import Run Help (find users guide here) About

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IPEDS Post-Secondary Institution 2004 Information Major categories of variables have a

circle in front. Subcategories of variables have a plus

sign in front. Clicking on the circle or plus sign

expands or contracts the list. “Frequently used variables” are at the

beginning for a reason.

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IPEDS Post-Secondary Institution 2004 InformationMajor categories: (each has subcategories) Frequently Used/Derived Variables Institutional Characteristics Admissions Student Charges Enrollment (Fall 2004 and Year 2003-04) Completions Graduation Rates Student Financial Aid Finance Faculty Salaries Employees by Assigned Position

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Post Secondary Institution Data 2004

Exercise 1. ?? Of the institutions in IPEDS-land,

how many are accredited by a regional accrediting agency and what is their type of control (public, private etc.)??

Caution – think beyond your peer group.

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Choosing Our Variables

Choose under the major category “Institutional Characteristics” the sub category “Accreditation” .

Choose “Regional Accrediting Agency”.

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Variable Pop Up Window

Variable information pop up provides a general description of the variable. It is the best way to look at definition and parameters. Are you getting what you think you are getting?

There is no one concise spot that describes all the variables that IPEDS holds. The Codebooks tab under 2.0 does provide info for certain surveys, but not for these surveys.

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Hint

How do you know which variable to choose under a major or sub category?

Trial and error, common sense, reading the pop-ups and saved TPFs.

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Choosing What To Do With Your Variable Two tabs on top – “Variable

Information” (default) and “Select a TAG”.

What are TAGs? TAGs are shortcuts to what you want done with the variable – will it be a row or column; will it be used to lump or cut, etc.

Understanding TAGs are crucial to DAS.

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Choosing Column Variable

Choose “Select a Tag”. Choose “Column Cat” for the variable

“Regional Accrediting Agency”.

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Variable Label Window

This window allows you to change the labels or keep them as they appear. We will keep the default.

Click on SAVE.

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Confirmation Window

Wait for original page of variables to appear with your choice.

The displayed variable list has added your Col-Cat tag next to “Regional Accrediting Agency”.

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Choosing Row Variable

In this exercise, we are going to use control of institution.

Choose “Control” (fourth option) under “Institutional Characteristics” .

Choose “Institutional Control or Affiliation” the first option under “Control”.

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Selecting Row TAG

Variable information pops up and provides a general description of the variable. Scroll to the bottom. Note the distribution.

Choose “Select a TAG” . Choose “Row Cat”. Note that you do not have as many

options as you did the first time.

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Variable Label and Confirmation Windows

A label window appears again. We will keep the default.

Choose “SAVE”. Original variable list will be revised.

Scroll up to see revised list. Scroll to top to see TPF menu.

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Processing the TPF

Show – shows TPF of variables just used Save – saves this TPF to your pc New – resets everything Import – pulls in a TPF from your pc RUN – produces a listing from this TPF Help – provides short cut to USER GUIDE

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Run the TPF…

Choose Run.

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TPF Title Window

Pop up window for title. Hint: Make it descriptive – use data

source and variables in title. Be as specific as possible.

“IPEDS 2004 – Institutional Control by Accrediting Agency (your initials)” for example.

Choose “Run”.

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Run Confirmation Window

Confirm the RUN request. You may receive a “Processing” page.

Production of results depends on the type of analysis and what else is happening at NCES.

Pop up window for results.

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Output Window Options

View printer friendly version Download comma separated format Download printer friendly web page Or RETURN.

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Output to local printer

For this exercise – choose “view printer friendly version”.

Print.

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Continuing the exercise

After printing choose “Return to Specifications”.

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Main Menu Options

“Show TPF” – shows you the variables you have chosen – good to print this off, because it gives exact variable names – which can be important when re-running the table.

Right click for print option of that window. Hint: attach the printed TPF to your printed

output. That way you will know how you got this.

At this point you can Save the TPF to your pc, Edit the TPF, or do a New one.

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Reversing The Axis

We are going to choose the exact same variables BUT reverse row and column variables.

Exercise 1a – do the exact same process, but reverse the axis. Remember to use the NEW tab to reset variables.

Run the TPF, review the results. Print output and TPF.

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Reversing The Axis

Exercise 1a – do the exact same process, but reverse the axis.

Institutional Control or affiliation as column cat, then Regional accrediting agency as row cat.

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Average Does Not Equal Mean.

Exercise 2. ??What are the average room

charges for public institutions?? Definition of average tag – (p23 of

users guide) creates a column of average estimates.

Start with a NEW TPF.

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Average – choosing columns

Choose “Academic Year” under “Student Charges”.

Choose “Room and Board Charges”, second option.

Choose “typical room charge for academic year” as an AVERAGE.

Label window, then save.

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Average – choosing rows

Choose “Control” under “Institutional Characteristics”.

Choose “Control of Institution”, last option, as the row cat.

Label window. Confirm and “Save”.

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Average

Scroll to top. Show TPF (print TPF). Choose Run. Title window. Titles typically should have (at the very

least) the row and column variables specified, and the source data.

Print output.

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Mean Using Same Data

Rather than starting from scratch we are going to “EDIT” the TPF to do the mean rather than the average.

Return to specifications. Exercise 2a. ??What are the mean room charges

for public institutions??

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Editing a TPF to get Mean

Keep same Row Cat, change from average to mean for the room charge.

Choose SHOW TPF. Delete Average Room Charge. Now only the row cat should be

displayed. Close the TPF

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Mean

Under Student charges choose Typical Room Charge for academic year.

Choose Mean as the TAG. Run. Note that Title Window has the title from

previous TPF (this happens whenever you do not do a NEW TPF).

Need to modify title to specify MEAN.

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Average vs Mean

Note the differences. This difference can mean a lot when

you are doing analysis of student financial aid. Be careful when choosing your analysis, if 0 is not the same as missing.

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Cuts

Cuts are user defined intervals for the continuous variables.

Exercise 3. ?? What is distribution of institutional

control for small, medium and large institutions??

We are going to define small, medium and large.

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Cutting the data – column variable

Still using IPEDS Postsecondary Institution 2004 data.

Create NEW TPF. Choose “Control” under “Institutional

Characteristics”. Choose “Control of institution” as

column cat.

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Cutting the data – row variable

Choose sub category “12 month unduplicated headcount” under major category “Enrollment Academic Year 2003- 2004”.

Choose “Grand total”. Choose row cut.

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Specifying the cuts

Use the cut points of 999.5 and 9999.5 for determining small, medium and large.

Cut points require a decimal. Note the default value is -0.5. Click on the box to its right – a default

label will be created.

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Specifying the cuts

Accept the default -.5 for the first value. Create a default label for this row by just

clicking in the box to the right. Under the -.5 column enter 999.5 cut point.

Click on second column to get a default label.

Under the 999.5 enter the 9999.5 cut point. Click on second column to get a default label.

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Specifying the cuts

Change the labels to small, medium and large.

For this variable note that there are further choices about what to cut.

Be careful that you always read to the bottom of a popup window!!!

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Cutting the data

For this exercise choose “All Students total” for level of analysis at the bottom of the cut window. SAVE.

Run. Title. Note that the results are in percents

and not in number.

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DAS 2.0

Back to DAS On line home page by clicking on BACK TO DAS SITE on the blue DAS menu bar on top right.

Left side of page. Major categories of surveys are: B&B,

BPS,NELS, NHES, NPSAS, NSOPF and SASS.

DAS categorizes these as elementary/ secondary; post-secondary; and household surveys.

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DAS 2.0 and NSOPF 2004

Choose To Create Tables from left side.

Choose NSOPF 2004 from shortcuts. Agree to disclosure statement,

different data set, new agreement. Note different variables, but same

tabs on top. Note the search feature for variables.

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NSOPF 2004 Salary info

Exercise 4. ??What is the average salary of men

versus women faculty in 2 year vs 4 year institutions??

In this exercise note that the order you choose variables effects the options you are given!!!

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NSOPF 2004 row cat, average and by-cat Choose “Amount of income from basic

salary from institution” under “Frequently used variables” as an average.

Choose “Gender” under “Frequently used variables” as a row cat.

Choose “2000 Carnegie, 2 yr vs 4 yr” under “Frequently used variables” as a by-cat.

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NSOPF 2004 processing TPF

Label, confirm, run. Title. View output. Try this exercise again, choosing the

variables in a different order. See what options appear.

What effect do you think ‘Full-time vs Part-time’ would have on the results?

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NSOPF 2004 output as html

Two ways to save the listing electronically. Choose “Download printer friendly Web page”. Pop up window appears with an option to open or save

the results. Choose save. Browser will ask where you want to save it. Suggestion: rename it something you will understand.

The default name is DASTABLE.html. Not very helpful.

Put all output in one spot to help you find the latest try. Save as an “html” file.

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NSOPF 2004 output as csv

The other option is to “Download comma delimited file”.

Pop up window asks to open or save. Save. Browser will ask where you want to save it. Suggestion: rename it and put it in a folder

so that you can easily find it. Default name is DASTABLE.csv.

Extension will be “.csv”, which can be opened through Microsoft Excel.

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NSOPF 2004 on your own

Choose an analysis of your own as Exercise 4a.

Run the analysis and download the listing and the TPF, if you so desire.

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NPSAS and Correlation Matrices

Go Back to DAS On Line by clicking on menu bar.

Choose “To Estimate covariance analysis” (on 1.0 side it is called “to create correlations”).

Choose “NPSAS 2004 Undergraduates” from shortcuts.

Accept disclosure statement again.

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NPSAS 2004 and correlation matrices

Note that the tabs are once again the same and there is a search feature.

The variables are different. But the grey bar starts with CPF and

not TPF.

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NPSAS 2004 and correlation matrices Choose under the “Borrowed” major category

and the “Cumulative” sub category, the variable “Cumulative borrowed for undergraduate education” as a continuous variable.

Choose under the same two categories, the variable “cumulative PLUS loans” as a continuous variable.

Choose under “Education” major category and the “Program” sub category ,the variable “Field of Study: undergraduate (12 cat)” as EACH.

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NPSAS 2004

Choose Run. Make sure you choose the type of file

you want – SAS or SPSS before you run. (I use SAS.)

Create a title. Confirm.

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NPSAS 2004

WAIT. When completed, there will be a pop

up window asking for you to download.

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NPSAS 2004

Browser will ask where you want to save it.

Suggestion: rename it and put it in a folder so that you can easily find it.

Extension will be “.txt.” This is basically a SAS program with the card information for running a regression.

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Summary

Introduced DAS 1.0 and 2.0 Accessed a number of features of

DAS Began to get an understanding of the

wide range of information available Used DAS to analyze data

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Goal of this workshop

At the end of this workshop we have accessed three different sets of DAS information,

Done a rudimentary analysis on each, Been able to print a report, Been able to download correlation

matrices for further analysis.

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An Introduction to Using DAS Online for Institutional Research

Any questions? dphenr@wm.edu 757-221-2571