add_completion_status {midfieldr}

Determine completion status for every student

Description

Add columns to a data frame of student-level records that indicate whether a student completed a degree, and if so, whether their completion was timely.

Usage

add_completion_status(dframe, midfield_degree = degree)

Arguments

dframe

Working data frame of student-level records to which completion-status columns are to be added. Required variables are mcid and timely_term. See also add_timely_term().

midfield_degree

MIDFIELD degree data table or equivalent with required variables mcid and term_degree.

Details

By "completion" we mean an undergraduate earning their first baccalaureate degree (or degrees, for students earning more than one degree in the same term). Additional degrees, if any, earned later than the term of the first degree are ignored.

In many studies, students must complete a degree in a specified time span, for example 4-, 6-, or 8-years after admission. If they do, their completion is timely; if not, their completion is late and they are grouped with the non-completers when computing a metric such as graduation rate.

Completion status is "timely" for students completing a degree no later than their timely completion terms. See also add_timely_term().

Value

A data frame in data.table format with the following properties: rows are preserved; columns are preserved with the exception that columns added by the function overwrite existing columns of the same name (if any); grouping structures are not preserved. The added columns are:

term_degree

Character. Term in which the first degree(s) are completed. Encoded YYYYT. Joined from midfield_degree data table.

completion_status

Character. Label each observation to indicate completion status. Possible values are: "timely", indicating completion no later than the timely completion term; "late", indicating completion after the timely completion term; and "NA" indicating non-completion.

See Also

Other add_*: add_data_sufficiency(), add_timely_term()

Examples

# Start with an excerpt from the student data set 
dframe <- toy_student[1:10, .(mcid)]

# Timely term column is required to add completion status column
dframe <- add_timely_term(dframe, toy_term)

# Add completion status column
add_completion_status(dframe, toy_degree)

# Existing completion_status column, if any, is overwritten
dframe[, completion_status := NA_character_]
add_completion_status(dframe, toy_degree)