name: Department of Education Vocabulary
description: >-
  Shared vocabulary of terms used across the U.S. Department of Education
  public APIs and data assets including College Scorecard, IPEDS, EDFacts,
  and the Open Data Platform.
terms:
  - term: College Scorecard
    definition: >-
      A consumer-facing tool and API published by the Department of Education
      with information about postsecondary institutions and their outcomes.
  - term: IPEDS
    definition: >-
      The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System operated by NCES that
      collects annual data from postsecondary institutions participating in
      federal student aid programs.
  - term: EDFacts
    definition: >-
      A centralized data collection of PK-12 education data submitted by state
      education agencies to the U.S. Department of Education.
  - term: NCES
    definition: >-
      The National Center for Education Statistics, the primary federal entity
      for collecting and analyzing education data.
  - term: Open Data Platform (ODP)
    definition: >-
      The CKAN-based public data catalog at data.ed.gov that publishes the
      Department's datasets with documentation and API access.
  - term: NSLDS
    definition: >-
      The National Student Loan Data System, the U.S. Department of
      Education's database for federal student aid records.
  - term: Institution
    definition: >-
      A postsecondary college, university, or technical/vocational school
      identified by its OPE ID and IPEDS UNITID.
  - term: UNITID
    definition: >-
      The IPEDS unique institutional identifier used to join across College
      Scorecard, IPEDS, and other federal datasets.
  - term: OPE ID
    definition: >-
      The Office of Postsecondary Education identifier used by federal student
      aid systems.
  - term: Field of Study
    definition: >-
      A program of study at an institution categorized by CIP code.
  - term: CIP Code
    definition: >-
      The Classification of Instructional Programs taxonomy used to identify
      academic programs.
  - term: Cost of Attendance
    definition: >-
      The total estimated annual cost of attending an institution including
      tuition, fees, and living expenses.
  - term: Net Price
    definition: >-
      The cost of attendance minus the average grant aid awarded to students.
  - term: Earnings After Enrollment
    definition: >-
      Median earnings of former students measured a fixed number of years
      after entry into the institution.
  - term: Completion Rate
    definition: >-
      The percentage of full-time, first-time students who complete a degree
      or certificate within a defined timeframe.
  - term: Dataset
    definition: >-
      A collection of related data files published on the Open Data Platform
      with metadata, documentation, and download endpoints.
  - term: API Key
    definition: >-
      A unique identifier issued by api.data.gov that must accompany every
      authenticated request to the College Scorecard API.