Postsecondary Completers and Completions: 2011-12. Web Tables. NCES 2014-033
Author: Ginder, Scott
Date: 2014-03-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Postsecondary Education,Graduation Rate,Tables (Data),College Graduates,Awards,Student Characteristics,Ethnicity,Gender Differences,Institutional Characteristics,Certification,Statistical Data,Statistical Distributions,Graduation,School Statistics,Public Education,Private Education,Parochial Schools,State Surveys,Educational Attainment,Racial Differences

In 2009, President Barack Obama set forth a goal that America would have the highest percentage of college graduates (associate's and bachelor's degree recipients) in the world by 2020. The U.S. Department of Education estimated that to reach this goal, the number of college graduates would need to increase by 50 percent nationwide by 2020, meaning that, in addition to current projected growth, 8 million additional young adults would need to earn a degree (U.S. Department of Education 2011). As part of the American Graduation Initiative, the President also set a complementary goal of 5 million individuals earning certificates or degrees from community colleges (The White House 2009). Traditionally, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the core postsecondary education data collection program for the National Center for Education Statistics, Completions component has focused on the number of awards conferred by institutions (i.e., completions). However, in 2012, IPEDS began collecting additional data on the number of students who earned awards (i.e., completers). Given the current policy focus on increasing the number of postsecondary completers, these new IPEDS data will provide a more precise baseline on which to track future trends in this area. In addition, comparisons of the new completers data with data on overall completions can provide some indication of the extent to which students are earning multiple awards in a given year. These data may be useful to those interested in stackable and embedded credentials or other pathways by which students earn multiple awards. In order to facilitate comparisons of the number of completers with the number of completions, these Web Tables provide data on both; they also show the average number of awards provided per completer. Tables 1-5 of these Web Tables show the number of completers, the number of completions, and the average number of awards per completer, by student race/ethnicity and sex. Table 1 presents summary information for all institutions, while table 2 shows breakdowns by level of institution and tables 3-5 show breakdowns by institutional control. Tables 6-10 present the number of completers, the number of completions, and the average number of awards per completer by state, both overall and by level and control of institution. Tables 11-33 present information on the number of completers, the number of completions, and the average number of awards per completer, by race/ethnicity and sex, by level and control of institution, and by the level of award conferred. Specifically, tables 11-15 present data for less-than-1-year certificates, tables 16-20 for at-least-1- but less-than-4-year certificates, tables 21-25 for associate's degrees, tables 26-27 for bachelor's degrees, tables 28-29 for master's degrees, tables 30- 31 for doctor's degrees, and tables 32-33 for postbaccalaureate and post-master's certificates. Because bachelor's, master's, doctor's, and postbaccalaureate and post-master's certificates are generally awarded by 4-year institutions, data for those awards are not provided by level of institution. Table 34 presents information on the age of completers, by level of award and level and control of institution. A glossary is included.