How to use this package to support your IPEDS reporting

Step 0: Install/Load the package

#install option 1
remotes::install_github("AlisonLanski/IPEDSuploadables")

#install option 2 (relies on the remotes package)
devtools::install_github("AlisonLanski/IPEDSuploadables")

#load the packages
library(IPEDSuploadables)
#> This version of IPEDSuploadables is for the 2021-2022 reporting cycle.
#> If you are in a later cycle or want to capture any bug fixes,
#> please update the package.

Step 1: Prep your institutional data

The package requires specific column names and values to work correctly. Each IPEDS report has a vignette that spells out requirements and also has sample data you can examine.

To create files for non-supported reports, see How to produce other key-value uploads

IPEDS Report	Required Dataframes	Sample Data
12 Month Enrollment	students & instructional activity	e1d_student, e1d_instr
Completions	students & extra cips	com_students, com_cips
Fall Enrollment	students & retention aggregate	ef1_students, ef1_retention
Graduation Rates	students	gr_students
Graduation Rates 200	students	gr200_students
Human Resources	staff	hr_staff
Outcome Measures	students	om_students

You can call the sample data as desired to explore it

#dataframe of student information for 12 month enrollment
head(e1d_student)
#>   Unitid StudentId IsFullTime IsFirstTime IsTransfer IsDegreeCertSeeking
#> 1 999999       100          1           1          0                   1
#> 2 999999       101          1           1          0                   0
#> 3 999999       102          1           1          0                   1
#> 4 999999       103          1           1          0                   0
#> 5 999999       104          1           1          0                   1
#> 6 999999       105          1           1          0                   0
#>    StudentLevel RaceEthnicity Sex DistanceEdAll DistanceEdSome
#> 1 Undergraduate             1   1             0              1
#> 2 Undergraduate             1   2             0              1
#> 3 Undergraduate             1   2             0              1
#> 4 Undergraduate             1   1             0              1
#> 5 Undergraduate             1   1             0              1
#> 6 Undergraduate             1   2             0              0

Step 2: Read in your data and produce your IPEDS report

Each IPEDS report has a single function which will produce all required sub-parts in a single file for upload.

Some reports require 2 dataframes
Use the popup box to choose the folder where the report should be saved.
The upload file will be saved as a txt file with a date-stamp. Rerunning the script on the same day to the same location will overwrite your original file.

Example:

#full export using sample data
produce_e1d_report(df = e1d_student, hrs = e1d_instr, part = "ALL")

A message will be display the location of your file when it has been processed.

Notes for specific reports

Completions

The extra cips dataframe is optional and can be left empty if your school has student completions in all cip/award level combinations previously reported

Fall Enrollment

Your student-faculty ratio number is collected via pop-up box. Type a whole number when prompted.
The main function auto-detects the IPEDS submission year and adjusts the sections of cip-based enrollment, student age, and student residence state appropriately to be in or out of your report. If you would like to report data in optional years, change the include_optional flag to TRUE.

Human Resources

The script requires one dataframe with all current employees and new hires. If someone is counted in both sections of the report, include them only once in your institutional data with the appropriate flags.

Step 3: Upload your IPEDS report

Navigate to the IPEDS submission portal and log in.
Select the appropriate report (for example: “12 Month Enrollment”), select “key-value pair”, then browse to your .txt file and upload.
Click through the survey screens to review results and verify submission accuracy
Continue your standard process to check edits, enter metadata, lock, and submit the survey.

Troubleshooting

You need to make a data correction after uploading

Update your base data, rerun the package function, and re-upload to IPEDS. You can upload as many times as you want to any particular survey.
Your keyholder may be able to edit directly in the website, but this method is not recommended since it is not reproducible.

If you verify that your data and dataframe(s) are correct, but IPEDS still shows incorrect aggregation, please contact the package authors by adding a GitHub issue or by emailing. We can provide the quickest help if you share an example with sample data, expected output, and actual output.

IPEDS rejects your upload file or accepts the file but provides an error message

Common issues include:

Your data has disallowed values
Your upload is missing a sub-part of the report
IPEDS is expecting particular information based on previous years of reporting which is inconsistent or missing

For example, IPEDS wants all previous CIP/Award Level combinations reported on the current upload file. If you have no students in those categories, add any flagged CIP/Award combinations to your extra_cips dataframe, rerun, and reupload to remove this error message

How the package can help you troubleshoot

A few functions have built-in data quality checks which will alert you of disallowed values. We are working to add more automated checks.

If you want to examine a single report sub-part in depth, you can create a separate text file with only those values.

Example:

#if you only want to look at 12 month enrollment part B
produce_e1d_report(e1d_instr, part = "B")

You can also produce a csv version of the part’s text file, for more readable output (still using IPEDS upload-required column names and values)

Example:

#text files make my eyes bleed! let's use a csv
produce_e1d_report(hrs = e1d_instr, part = "B", format = "readable")

IPEDS has changed a survey’s requirements, but you need to rerun an old report

At the end of every IPEDS collection cycle, that year’s package code will be saved into a branch on GitHub. To use an old version, install the package from the branch.

#install, picking an acceptable year range
remotes::install_github(repo = "AlisonLanski/IPEDSuploadables", ref = "reporting_year_2020-2021")

When you have finished running your code, reinstall the current version of the package by removing the “ref” argument.