VSA Podcast 1 Info

Voluntary System of Accountability – This is the homepage for the VSA project as a whole; if you’re interested in knowing more about the project and why it was created, feel free to poke around and read the supporting documents.

CollegePortraitExample.pdf (application/pdf Object)  - This is a sample PDF version of the completed College Portrait; it contains made-up data for a fictional institution and should be used whenever we need to look at a finished College Portrait

Common Data Set Initiative – Much of the data reported in the Student and Family Information portion of the College Portrait is sourced from the Common Data Set, which is a set of survey items that the major publishers (such as U.S. News) have agreed to so that institutions aren’t having to respond to slightly different versions of the same question for each of the many external surveys we complete each year.

National Student Clearinghouse: Colleges and Universities: Voluntary System of Accountability  - The National Student Clearinghouse provides the data for one of the key tables and charts in the College Portrait; this web site is maintained by the Clearinghouse to provide instructions to institutions on how to obtain the data used to complete these tables and charts.

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) -  - You’ll have to navigate a bit to get to the portion of the Peer Analysis System that I show in the podcast. You’ll want to log in at the Guest Level and agree to the terms of use. For the focus institution, you can use UW-L; enter 240329 to look us up by Institution ID. From the menu that appears on the left, go to Reports and Stats and then to Forms Facsimile. View reports for a selected institution and scroll down to the Student Financial Aid report. Select the most recent year (probably 2005, though 2006 should be released any day now).

Carnegie Classifications – This is a link to the main Carnegie Foundation website; in the menu bar at the top, the first option is Lookup and Listings; please show in the podcast selecting the “Institution Lookup” from this menu.

FuturePlansDataElement.pdf (application/pdf Object) – This is the exact text of the graduating senior survey question that all institutions must use for the VSA.

CollegePortraitDetails.pdf (application/pdf Object) – You’ll want to open this PDF document and set it up to show page 7, which will include the list of the 4 student experiences surveys which can be used to complete the VSA.

CollegePortraitDetails.pdf (application/pdf Object)  - You’ll want to open this PDF document and set it up to show page 12, which will include the list of the 3 student learning outcomes assessments which can be used to complete the VSA.