Analyzing Student Geo-Demographics at Clark State Community College

Aimée Bélanger-Haas, GISPGEOG 596ADecember 19th, 2012

Advisor: Stephen Matthews

Outline

• Background

• Goals and Objectives

• Proposed Methodology

• Anticipated Results

• Timeline

Clark State Community College

Funding

• Sources?– Alumni society– Fundraising– Government funding (changing and reducing)

• A large part is generated via student tuition and recruiting students

• Identifying “where” to recruit students from can be an important financial strategy

Typical Clark State Student

Year Total Enrollment

AverageAge

% Male % Female % Full Time

% Part Time

2012 4,977 28.2 33.8 66.2 41.1 58.9

2011 5,139 28.5 32.4 67.6 43.6 56.4

2010 4,993 28.4 34.0 66.0 45.9 54.1

Average 5,036 28.36 33.4% 66.6% 43.5% 56.5%

Research Question

• Based on five years of registration data, what are the demographic characteristics of a typical CSCC student?

• Can other similar areas be identified to help with marketing efforts?

• Other potential questions worth examining include the characteristics of students based on academic grade and major

Geodemographics

• Study of people according to where they live

• Loosely based on the assumption of “birds of a feather flock together”

• Provides the capability to predict consumer behavior based on a neighborhood classification

Education is like a Business

• The retail sector has fully embraced the use of geodemographics to help increase business and profits by better identifying potential customers

• This same methodology can be applied for Higher Educational institutions

• Both have customers (students) with addresses that can be geocoded that can help uncovering varying themes through their geodemographic profile

Previous Research

• Studies have been accomplished at other higher education institutions

• Most have been at 4-year universities who recruit straight out of high school

• Many institutions do analysis but do not reveal their methods

Methodology

Step 1: Acquire Student Data

• Get student information from Institutional Research (IR)

Student Information

Address

Gender

Age

Ethnicity

Degree/Major

Grade Point Average

High School (if reported)

SAT score (if reported)

Step 2: Download Census 2010 data

• Tract level (n=355) data will be downloaded to create the geodemographic segments

• American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates (2007-2011) data will be utilized for demographic, social, economic and housing characteristics

• SF1 data will be utilized for counts

Census Variables

Step 3: Create Geo-demographic Segments

• Segments will be created based on the combination of socioeconomic data

• Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) will be

conducted in OpenGeoDa and ArcGIS, variables will be evaluated and paired down

• Census tracts will be grouped together based on similarities

• Student dataset spatially joined to segments

Step 4: Analyze

• Identification of hot spots will be undertaken for various sub-groupings

• I will use the R statistical package & the ArcGIS spatial statistics toolset.

• I plan to explore the use of methods such as:– On point data: Kernel Density Analysis (KDE), as well as

several functions such as Ripley's K, L, and the pair correlation function (PCF).

– On area data: Spatial regression analysis to explicitly model spatial relationships

Anticipated Results

• Students will be classified into different geodemographic groups to help uncover areas that match target demographics

• CSCC will gain a better understanding of its student’s neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics

• Areas surrounding CSCC will potentially be identified and targeted marketing may occur in order to help increase enrollment

Additional maps of use to the College

• Enrollment per census tract • Educational attainment and median income per census tract• CPE students with total student population • CPE students versus total density per school district• CPE students with median family income• Drive time analysis• Enrollment as a percentage by census tract versus total

population college aged students (market penetration)

TimelineWinter 2013:

– Present before IRB Board– Geocode student datasets– Download census data

Spring 2013– Process data and create Geodemographic segments– Analyze results

Summer 2013– Present at ESRI Education User Conference– Provide the CSCC with the maps and results

Acknowledgments

• Would like to acknowledge the following people:

– Advisor: Stephen Matthews– Institutional Research: Cynthia Applin– Marketing Director: Jennifer Diestch

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Questions

Please feel free to contact me atbelanger-haasa@clarkstate.edu

Aimee Belanger-Haas