Data Blog

This graphic shows the percentage of the mode of instruction by whether the institution has ongoing COVID testing. There are 100 squares in total with each square representing a percentage point. Primarily online is 60% of the institutions with ongoing COVID testing while it is only 41% of no ongoing COVID testing. Schools with ongoing COVID testing have only 1% in the “Other” category. It is interesting to see that more primarily in-person schools have no ongoing COVID testing. If the institutions have more classes in-person, this may put students at risk since there is no ongoing COVID testing.

 

No Ongoing COVID Testing

	Count	Percentage
Primarily/Fully Online	1114	41.3%
Primarily/Fully In-Person	504	18.7%
TBD	697	25.8%
Hybrid	234	8.7%
Other	147	5.4%

 

Ongoing COVID Testing

	Count	Percentage
Primarily/Fully Online	173	59.6%
Primarily/Fully In-Person	41	14.1%
TBD	38	1.3%
Hybrid	34	11.7%
Other	4	1.3%

 

Data Analyst: Meghan Corso

These graphs display graduation and retention rates for about 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States. The bar graph shows a breakdown of graduation rates for different racial groups, averaged over the last decade.

The first line graph shows how graduation rates have changed for each of these groups over the last decade from 2010-2019. The second line graph shows retention rates (percent of enrolled freshman who return for the following school year) over that same span.

These graphs will be very interesting when the Covid-affected data becomes available in the coming months. It will be important for colleges to take note of the aggregate retention rates and how students reacted to being sent home in the spring of 2020. It will also be important from a social justice perspective to look at graduation rates broken down by race as well as other categories to analyze how the pandemic has impacted groups differently.

 

Data Analyst: Kilian Quinn

This boxplot captures differences between schools choosing to test students in the 2021 spring semester and those that do not. Using athletic revenue as a percent of total expenses, we can see how budgets mays constrain testing decisions. Schools with a lower athletic revenue as percent of their total expenses are more likely to continue testing students this spring.

 

Data Analyst: Garnet Brown

This graphic examines the percent of infected undergraduates by institutions in different urbanization categories by splitting institutions into rural, town, suburb, and city categories. Each different facet illustrates the percent of infected undergraduates by undergraduate enrollment. Using urbanization and enrollment data from IPEDS and COVID-19 data from C2i, this visualization suggests that the most consistent occurrences of high percentages of undergraduates infected with COVID-19 occurred in town institutions (town being one urbanization level below suburb). Surprisingly, the data that was used show that city institutions with the highest enrollments had relatively lower infection rates compared to institutions in different categories with lower enrollment. These results beg the question — what were the differences in testing frequency and student testing requirements across city, rural, suburb, and town institutions — and different enrollment numbers within each of these categories— that may have impacted an accurate measurement of COVID-19 cases among undergraduates?

 

	Rural	Town	Suburb	City
Number of Institutions	139	414	400	365

 

Data Analyst: Rachel McLean

Data relating to the number of full-time faculty members of six different races was recorded in Fall 2019 for 1,991 different U.S. colleges and universities. The visualization shows the percent of faculty members for each of the six races that teach at a school that is following each mode of instruction. It is important to note that there are many more races, and some people may identify as more than one race, so this data does not fully encompass how each faculty member self-identifies.

As shown in the visualization, each race is roughly as present in each mode of instruction. That is, the percent of White faculty teaching primarily or fully in-person is similar to the percent of White faculty teaching hybrid/hyflex.

Data Analyst: Caitlin Welch