As the summer comes to a close and the WSU university community welcomes back students for the Fall term, the Institutional Research (IR) team and system partners are preparing for census day, the day that a snapshot is captured of WSU student data that will be used in state and federal reporting throughout the year.
There’s a lot of visible work as different departments prepare for students to return, but less visible, crucial work done by IR and others ensures that enrollment information, retention, degree programs, and more will be accurately represented in WSU’s census snapshot.
Because this data forms the basis for information for federal reporting, work begins well ahead of census day. Working with the Registrar’s Office, Admissions, Scheduling, Student Affairs, and academic departments, the IR team reviews and validates data through dashboards and queries to fix any issues heading into the current term.
Partner Support in Data Cleaning
Precensus data checking is a lot of data housekeeping. Using dashboards created by the IR team, central offices and academic units review their data for errors. For example, having the correct instructor of record for each class is of vital importance. Not only is it necessary so that the course catalog displays the correct instructor name for students to see, but it is also necessary when assessing faculty workload and instructional costs.
Institutional Research is WSU’s Data Cleaning Guide
As departments and units work towards cleaning their data, the IR team is available to meet directly with the appropriate office to walk through any issues, clarify any questions on how to use the student data dashboard as a validation tool, and ask questions and troubleshoot. IR also works with the Associate Deans and other institutional leaders for review of the information.
Institutional Research works best when collaborating across the WSU system, and precensus data cleaning and validation is a prime example of that culture of collaboration and teamwork, to ensure transparent and accurate data. “Data reported from this office comes from a lot of different sources, and business areas have knowledge that is important to make sure we are capturing the information correctly,” said Stephanie Kane, Assistant Vice Provost.
Learn more about WSU data at data.wsu.edu.
About the Author
Eija Sumner is a Strategic Communication Coordinator at Washington State University.