1. Where do the Education Benchmark data come from?
The data within EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service come from
the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) Integrated Postsecondary
Education Data System (IPEDS), an annual data collection program
administered by DOE’s National Center for Education Statistics.
IPEDS collects and tabulates a broad variety of data on U.S. “postsecondary
education,” defined within IPEDS as “the provision of a formal instructional
program whose curriculum is designed primarily for students who
are beyond the compulsory age for high school.”
2. How can EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service be used to support
a company’s compliance or diversity programs?
EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service can be used in a variety
of ways to support a company’s affirmative action compliance or
diversity management programs. First, with respect to AAP compliance,
to the extent that a company sources candidates for certain jobs
or job groups largely — or even sometimes exclusively — from college
campuses, using “traditional” Census occupation data in determining
availability for these positions likely will not yield an accurate
benchmark, because the Census data reflect those people who are
already working in the occupation(s) analyzed. In these cases, companies
can supplement or, where appropriate given the sourcing strategy,
substitute the census occupation data typically used in the AAP’s
availability calculations with the educational statistics available
through EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service.
The data also can be used to help companies build more reliable
diversity goals for their college recruitment functions, giving
them a much clearer picture of the demographic characteristics of
the students graduating with the types of degrees and in the specific
fields of study being recruited.
3. Do the data include graduate statistics from all colleges and
universities, or just some?
The data within EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service come from
more than 4,000 U.S. degree-granting institutions that reported
academic year 2001-2002 or 2002-2003 data to the DOE through IPEDS.
Degree-granting institutions are defined as those offering either
an associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s, doctor’s, or first-professional
degree. Data from non-degree-granting institutions (i.e., those
offering only postbaccalaureate, post-master’s, or first professional
certificates, or certificates or diplomas of 4 years or less) are
not included in EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service.
4. Are graduate statistics available for specific institutions?
Yes. EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service contains detailed race/ethnicity
and gender data down to the institution level by detailed degree
and award level. This feature allows subscribers to identify the
specific institution(s) they typically recruit from, then retrieve
individual graduate diversity data for each one. There currently
are more than 4,000 degree-granting institutions in the database
behind EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service.
5. Does the Education Benchmark Data service provide data for each
race/ethnicity category, as well as for total minorities?
Yes. EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service provides graduate diversity
data for each race/ethnicity category and for minorities in the
aggregate. The service also will show graduate diversity statistics
in these categories by gender.
6. Are non-resident alien graduates included in the statistics?
Yes, but because non-resident alien graduates may not be eligible
or “available” to work in the U.S. upon graduation, data for non-resident
alien graduates are reported separately from the detailed race/ethnicity
and gender breakdowns of graduate data for others.
7. What is a “detailed degree” and how many are there?
A detailed degree generally equates to what many people commonly
refer to as a “major.” IPEDS categorizes all detailed degrees using
a system called the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP),
a hierarchy of codes developed for the purpose of collecting and
reporting postsecondary degree completions. There are three levels
of instructional program detail within the CIP: a two-digit series
representing the most general groupings; a four-digit series representing
intermediate groupings of programs that have comparable content
and objectives; and a six-digit series representing detailed specific
instructional programs. There are more than 795 detailed instructional
programs at the six-digit level. To make the service most useful
to our members, the detailed degrees for which data are available
through EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data reflect CIP classifications
at the two-digit level, the four-digit level, and in some cases,
select combinations of both.
8. What is a “degree family” and how many are there?
Degree families represent aggregations of specific detailed degrees,
and in many cases are consistent with CIP two-digit categories.
Graduate diversity statistics are available through EEAC’s Education
Benchmark Data service for 39 broad degree families.
9. What are “award levels” and how many are there?
IPEDS uses an 11-category award level classification system to identify
the types of degrees or certificates conferred by each postsecondary
institution. EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service contains information
on the five most common of these award levels as follows:
• Associate’s
Degree
• Bachelor’s Degree
• Master’s Degree
• Doctor’s Degree
•
First-Professional Degree
10. How often will EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service be updated?
EEAC will update its Education Benchmark Data service as new IPEDS
data become available, generally on an annual basis.
11. Who can I contact if I have additional questions about EEAC’s
Education Benchmark Data service?
The staff contact for EEAC’s Education Benchmark Data service is
Joe Lakis. Joe can be reached via e-mail at jlakis@eeac.org
or by phone at (202) 789-8650.
