Oklahoma

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Oklahomas Experience Proposed Measure
Construction for 2P1-Completion
Phoenix Data Quality Institute June 14-16, 2006
Kathy Spengler Oklahoma State Regents for Higher
Education Sarah Mussett Oklahoma Department of
Career and Technology Education
2
Background
There are two systems of public, postsecondary
education in Oklahoma.

• Oklahoma State System of Higher Education
  includes 13 colleges, 2 technical branches, and
  12 universities.

• The two-year colleges offer associate in applied
  science degrees, certificates of less than 1
  year, and certificates between 1 and 2 years.
• Three four-year universities also offer AAS
  degrees.

• Career Technology System includes 29 centers

• Technology Centers offer certificate programs to
  adults at the postsecondary level.

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Measurement Approach
PROPOSED EXIT GROUP Denominator 2003-04
students in an AAS or certificate program who (1)
have completed 1/3 of the credits required in
their program and (2) did not enroll the
following year (2004-05) NumeratorStudents who
were awarded a degree or certificate or who
transferred to a 2-year or 4-year institution

• CURRENT
• Denominator Entry Cohort (1999-00) of
  first-time entering students who declare an AAS
  program as their major
• NumeratorStudents who are awarded a degree or
  certificate within six years

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Measurement Approach
SYSTEMWIDE APPROACH

1. Identify Concentrators. If the students
   educational goal (theoretically consistent with
   the major) AAS or 2-year certificate level,
   then determine whether the cumulative credit
   hours gt 20. If the educational goal 1-year
   certificate, then determine whether the student
   had earned at least 10 credit hours.

1. Identify Exiters. If the student was a
   concentrator in 2003-04, then check for
   enrollment in any semester of 2004-05. If no
   enrollment is found in that year, then flag as a
   concentrator/exiter and include in the
   denominator.

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Measurement Approach

1. Identify Degree or Certificate Recipients.
   Search for degrees awarded in 2003-04 or 2004-05
   to match with those students previously
   identified as concentrator/exiters. We used a
   two-year window to catch many of the
   degree-eligible students who may not have
   actually received their degrees at program
   completion (due to outstanding tuition/fines or
   late applications, etc.)

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Findings
Current (AAS) Current (AAS) Exit Group (AAS only) Exit Group (AAS only) Exit Group (AAS Cert) Exit Group (AAS Cert)
Total 7,021 27.00 7,517 30.86 8,110 30.74

Male 2,978 24.11 2,837 28.30 3,057 28.16
Female 4,043 29.14 4,680 32.41 5,053 32.30

Am. Indian 766 25.85 644 31.99 689 32.08
Asian 159 32.70 133 25.56 145 26.21
Black 773 15.91 642 21.81 694 23.05
Hispanic 244 23.36 246 24.80 261 25.67
White 4,933 28.83 5655 32.34 6,102 31.96
Other 146 30.14 197 25.38 219 26.03
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Findings

• Overall, a change to the proposed exit group
  method would result in a higher Oklahoma
  completion rate than was reported in last years
  CAR
• Completion rates, even including certificate
  programs, would be almost 4 percentage points
  higher.

• Comparing only AAS students (ignoring students in
  certificate programs) under the current and
  proposed completion measure constructions
• More students, in total, would be included under
  the proposed method. The number of whites and
  females, in particular, would increase.

• Including certificates in the measure would
• improve the completion rates of minority
  students, up to 5.7 over what would be reported
  for AAS students only under the proposed plan.

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Observations, Questions Issues

• Concentrator, eligible coursework
• Academic and technical coursework that is part
  of a state established or state approved, locally
  established CTE program of study may count toward
  calculating student concentrator status.

• Is it necessary to determine if the cumulative
  credit hours taken are truly part of the CTE
  program, as opposed to credits which may have
  been earned during previous study in a different
  program or may be extra electives that wont
  count toward the CTE degree?

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Observations, Questions Issues

• Concentrator, program sequence
• The proposed definition states that generally
  the average number of credit hours for an AAS
  degree, two-year certificate, and one-year
  certificate would be 60 hours, 60 hours, and 30
  hours, respectively.

• Would there be an expectation that states apply
  program-specific requirements or
  institution-specific averages when determining
  how many hours are needed to be deemed a
  concentrator?

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Observations, Questions Issues

• Concentrator, student intent
• Is the use of educational goal to identify
  students enrolled in AAS or certificate programs
  appropriate, or is it contrary to the
  instructions to NOT use student intent in
  defining a concentrator? If it is inconsistent
  with our proposed measure, how will other states
  identify students to be included?

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Observations, Questions Issues

• PROPOSED CONCENTRATOR ENTRY COHORT
• Insufficient longitudinal data were available in
  this trial run to identify a concentrator entry
  cohort.
• How difficult is it to determine the first point
  in time that a student attains concentrator
  status and avoid duplication among multiple
  institutions or semesters being reported?