A service of the Higher Education Data Policy Committee (HEDPC), IR in the Know keeps you up to date on current and emerging issues related to higher education data collection, analyses, and reporting with a brief summary of topics and links to more detailed information. We welcome your feedback and suggestions. If you discover a resource or article that might be useful to other IR professionals, please send an email to irintheknow@airweb.org.

Data Security and Privacy Protections – Request for Comments
Recommendations from a report contracted by U.S. Department of Education on data security for education data systems are now available for review and comment until August 13, 2010. The list of recommendations outlines ways the Department can address emerging challenges in protecting student data in education data systems. The report will be used as a resource by the Department’s forthcoming Privacy Technical Assistance Center, expected to be in operation by late 2010. To post comments, visit the Protecting Privacy Blog on the Department’s web site.

Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009
Information on educational attainment is collected annually in the American Community Survey (ACS) and the Current Population Survey (CPS). The U.S. Census Bureau’s Educational Attainment in the United States: 2009data tables provide information from these sources on degree attainment in the United States by age, gender, and race/ethnicity. The tables also include data on the highest level of education achieved by a wide range of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics including age, gender, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, household relationship, citizenship, nativity, and year of entry. Historical tables provide data on mean earnings by degree attainment level, gender, race and Hispanic origin with data back to 1975, and tables on attainment levels back to 1940. Several highlights are:

• More women than men are expected to enter professions such as doctor, lawyer, and college professor as they represent approximately 58 percent of young adults (ages 25 to 29) who hold an advanced degree.
  
  
• Among people in the 25-29 age group, nine percent of women and six percent of men held either a master's degree or higher.
  
  
• The 2008 data show having such a degree pays off with average earnings of those with an advanced degree higher than those with a bachelor's degree only ($83,144 compared with $58,613). People whose highest level of attainment was a high school diploma had average earnings of $31,283.

Minorities and the Recession-Era College Enrollment Boom
In Minorities and the Recession-Era College Enrollment Boom, the Pew Research Center describes the characteristics of freshmen and the institutions educating them. It also examines the impact of the growth on institutions and the impact of the recession on student employment.

The report shows that freshmen enrollment in postsecondary institutions increased by 144,000 students from fall 2007 to fall 2008. This six percent increase was the largest increase in 40 years with almost three-quarters attributed to the growth in minority enrollment. Freshmen enrollment grew 15 percent for Hispanics, eight percent for blacks, six percent for Asians, and three percent for whites. Some of the increase in minorities is due to the changing demographics; in addition, Hispanics are now completing high school at record rates. Two-year institutions had the greatest increase in freshmen enrollment at 11 percent. Freshmen enrollment in the less than two-year institutions increased by five percent, and in the four-year institutions by five percent.

Rebalancing the Mission: The Community College Completion Challenge - AACC
President Obama has set forth an agenda for the U.S. to once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. In April 2010, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and five other community college organizations responded by reaffirming their commitment to improving completion rates while maintaining their commitment to access and quality. The AACC report, Rebalancing the Mission: The Community College Completion Challenge, identifies three areas in which community colleges may modify their missions to improve student persistence and success: course enrollment, course completion, and certificate and degree completion The report notes community colleges will have difficulty embracing the practices and perspectives needed to increase completion rates without additional fiscal resources, especially at a time when they are facing double-digit enrollment growth.

Getting Past Go: Rebuilding the Remedial Bridge to College Success
The Education Commission of the States (ECS), Knowledge in the Public Interest (KPI), and the Policy Research on Preparation, Access and Remedial Education (PRePARE) at the University of Massachusetts, Boston released the joint report Getting Past Go: Rebuilding the Remedial Bridge to College Successwhich describes current policies for remedial education and suggests a framework for further study of policies related to remedial education.

National data show 34 percent of all new entering college students required at least one remedial class and for students enrolling in a community college, 43 percent required some remedial education. For those who need only one course, this is a minor hurdle. For those who need two or more courses, this is a bigger challenge, with many never completing their goal of attaining a college degree.