Things to know about student data…
It’s important to think about how frequently data change and take that into consideration when using
DSS reports. Data about students change over time. Some data change frequently, while other data
remain fairly constant. Effects of data changing frequently are most noticeable when you look at
reports by fiscal year.
Maricopa Trends and DSS Headcount and How They Differ
Maricopa Trends
These reports count students once for each college by report time-period (term or fiscal year). Fall and
spring terms calculate headcount based on 45th day enrollment in credit courses. Trends 45th Day
Reports provide headcount by age, gender, ethnicity, residency, admission status, full-time/part-time,
new/former/continuing, and day/evening. District summaries are totals of all colleges’ numbers and do
not un-duplicate headcount district-wide.
Fiscal year headcounts include students enrolled in credit, non-credit vocational, non-credit avocational,
ABE-GED and skill centers. Maricopa Trends counts students once for each category a student
enrolled during the fiscal year. The district summary is the total of all colleges’ numbers.
MCCCD does not publish official fiscal year reports by categories such as academic load because
some students would be counted in more that one category in a year. A student enrolled full-time in the
fall and part-time in the spring would be counted twice in the fiscal year total. The same holds true for
the categories of new/former/continuing, age, and day/evening where student’s status can change from
term to term.
Even within a term, some students enroll at more than one college and can have a different academic
status at each institution. Typically, over 4% of students enroll at more than once college in the same
term. In this case, Maricopa Trends counts these students once for each college and then sums the
college totals together so that these students are counted more than once in the district-wide total.
Again, the same holds true for categories of new/former/continuing and day/evening.
If you need official headcount, refer to Maricopa Trends
http://www.dist.maricopa.edu/business/ir/trends/index.htm.
DSS Reports
DSS uses the measure Distinct Students to count the number of students enrolled in a term or fiscal
year. The measure, Distinct Students, counts a student once for each category (dimension) displayed.
Every dimension also has an All Groups category that provides an overall unduplicated count. Unlike
Maricopa Trends, DSS provides a district-wide, unduplicated headcount via the All Groups category.
That means if a student is attended more then one college in a term, the MCCD total only counts the
student once district-wide. If a student attended one college in the fall and another college in the
spring, the MCCD total for fiscal year will only count the student once.
DSS also has more time-periods of data available than Maricopa Trends. DSS captures headcount
data at the end of each week beginning 10 weeks before the term starts until the end of the term. The
end of term snapshot is “refreshed” for one year. Because the data are captured weekly, a student’s
academic load can even change within a term -- a student may enroll in more classes, withdraw from
classes, or completely withdraw from college. DSS provides a week-by-week view of changes in
students’ status within a term. You can work with your institutional researcher to delve into the details
related to term attrition.
1
A Comparison of Time-periods and Data Available
The following diagram illustrates a term’s timeline and how data available in DSS compares to data
available in Maricopa Trends. The primary difference is that DSS has weekly snapshots of student
data available to report on while Maricopa Trends has 45th day and fiscal year headcount data.
DSS Weekly Snapshots – Fall & Spring Terms
-10 -9
-8
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
1
2
3
4
5
Weeks Before the Term Starts
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
ET
Weeks During the Term
Maricopa Trends – Fall & Spring Terms
45th
Day
(no data available)
(no data available)
Comparing Headcount in Maricopa Trends and DSS
The following examples illustrate how Maricopa Trends and DSS headcounts differ. The district-wide
summary in Maricopa Trends will always be higher than the unduplicated headcount in DSS.
In both of the following examples, the difference represents the number of students who attended more
than one MCCCD college during fiscal year or term.
2
Maricopa Trends – Fiscal Year Headcount
District-wide Credit Students
222,174
DSS- Fiscal Year Headcount (ET snapshot)
Maricopa Trends – Fall 2004
District-wide Credit Students
183,468
3
Maricopa Trends – Fall 2004 Headcount
DSS
45th Day
District-wide Credit Students
123,274
DSS- Fall 2004 Headcount (Week 7 snapshot)
District-wide Credit Students
116,397
4
Reference Table - Frequency of Student Data Changing by Dimension
Use this table to understand how changes in student data can affect the reports you use in DSS. Data
noted as changing frequently can change within a term or from one term to the following term. Data
noted as changing less often are typically items self-reported by the student. Data noted as changing
infrequently are attributes like prior education, gender and citizenship.
Student
Reports
Demographics
Dimension
How Often Data Change
Frequently
Academic
Load
x
Age
Category
x
Less Often
Citizenship
Ethnic
Group
x
Residency
x
Sex
Term
Attendance
Infrequently
x
x
x
5
Comment
A student can be full-time
in a fall term and parttime the following spring
term.
A student’s age is
calculated based on the
term’s start date, so age
won’t change during a
term, but it can change
from one term to the next.
Very little change.
Since this data is selfreported data by the
student, it’s possible for a
student to change how
they identify themselves
over time.
Most changes occur
when an out-of-state
student has lived in the
state long enough to be
reclassified as “Maricopa
County” residency.
Very little change.
The first time a student
attends your college, she
will be classified as a
“New” student. After that
first term, she will be
classified as Continuing
or Former, depending
upon whether she
maintains continuous
enrollment. NOTE: A
student is considered
Continuing as long has
they do not skip more
than two terms (excluding
summer terms). That
means a student can skip
a fall and spring term or a
spring and fall term (but
not more than that) to be
considered Continuing.
Student
Reports
Enrollment
Dimension
How Often Data Change
Frequently
Academic
Load
Less Often
Admission
Status
x
Current
Intent
Prior Education
Infrequently
x
x
Primary
Time of
Attendance
x
Units
Taken
x
Feeder HS
First
Generation
x
x
6
Comment
Student’s status of fulltime, part-time, and
completely withdrawn
from college can vary
each term and can even
vary week by week within
a term. A student can
also be full-time at one
college and part-time at
another college in the
same term.
Indicates a student’s
classification related to
their ability to benefit and
receive financial (no high
school diploma or GED
and 18 or older).
The reason a student
attends college changes
over time and can vary
between colleges. A
student can attend two
colleges concurrently,
and have a different
reason for attending each
college, i.e., attending
GWCC with a “Workforce”
intent an PC with a”
Personal Interest” intent.
Just like academic load, a
student’s primary time of
attendance can vary
between terms or
between colleges in the
same term.
Just like academic load,
units taken by a student
can vary between terms
or between colleges in
the same term.
Changes infrequently.
This is a new data, selfreported by students and
is anticipated to rarely
change.
Student
Reports
Dimension
How Often Data Change
Frequently
HS Grad
Status
Less Often
HS Grad
Year
Geography
Infrequently
x
x
Previous
College
Experience
City
Geo Sector
x
Postal
Code
x
x
x
7
Comment
Does not change often.
When it does change, it’s
normally dual enrollment
or concurrently enrolled
high school students who
have graduate from high
school or students who
have earned a GED.
Changes infrequently,
again mostly for dual and
concurrent enrollment
high school students
Changes less often and is
self-reported by students.
Self-reported by student.
May change depending
on the change of address
self-reported by the
student.
Self-reported by student.