iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

And to whichever admin has a vendetta against deferred students, how about this compromise: Add a single column to the ACTS survey that allows us to simply IDENTIFY these students so that you can include or exclude them in whatever analysis your heart desires.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Among many excellent points, I’m so glad the deferred student issue was one of the highlights. To me, it remains one of the most ill-considered decisions of ACTS and likely IPEDS Admissions moving forward.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

I *should* budget a few minutes to get out of coding headspace and into next-meeting headspace, but…

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Reposted by Simon Tonev

Armando MC @armandomc.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

A NEIGHBOR'S PRIMER TO ORGANIZING, ADVOCACY, AND THE URGENCY OF COMMUNITY is available now! Preferred retailers are Book & Puppet Co, Semicolon Books, and @fireflybookstore.bsky.social. Direct order link: shop.ingramspark.com/b/084?params... Ebook: bookshop.org/p/books/a-ne... #booksky #newbook

Cover of my book: A Neighbor's Primer to Organizing, Advocacy, and the Urgency of Community. Author: Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

lol not embarrassed to say that I was refreshing your feed all day waiting for your take on this!

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

Right?! Compare the IPEDS data collection process to the, say, US News collection process and one will quickly be disabused of the notion that government-affiliated systems are necessarily worse that wholly private ones.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 18/04/2026

I really hope this doesn’t affect the quality of the data collection process. ACTS notwithstanding, I’ve had almost exclusively positive experiences over the last 20 years with the IPEDS Data Collection System and the Help Desk in particular.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 07/04/2026

I have NO legal expertise, but is it possible that the first “state” is modifying “colleges”, “universities”, and “institutions”? Not sure what the clarity/redundancy trade-off is for these kinds of things.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

If I had to guess, I’d say that they want the most recent *complete* dataset (2019 Admissions to 2025 graduation) and the most recent *available* dataset (2025 Admissions). And then everything in between.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

At this point, I’ll take foolish optimism over wisened pessimism!

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 29/03/2026

When I’ve asked, I’m always told, “The first year will be 7 years of data but moving forward it’ll only be 1”. But, like, only 1 of the datasets this year was “complete” (admissions through 6-year grad). Hard to believe they won’t want us to complete the other 6 years as the data becomes available?

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

All this to say, in addition to the questionableness surrounding the ACTS data itself, rushed and ill-considered decisions may actually be making the other IPEDS data that we’ve previously come to rely on worse.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

In order to fix fatal errors, schools are being directed to re-open previously submitted, well-established surveys and alter the data to match ACTS! That’s right, remove deferred students from IPEDS Admissions even though the instructions said nothing about inclusion/exclusion of deferrals…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

It’s no wonder, then, that when excluding deferred first-years for ACTS, errors abound! “You reported this number before, but now you’re reporting something else. Please explain”. The explanation, of course, is that you changed a very basic reporting rule! Now this would be simply annoying, but…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

You see, the First-Time, Full-Time (FTFT) class is referenced *throughout* IPEDS. In addition to Admissions, you’ll find it in Cost II, Fall Enrollment, 12-Month Enrollment, Graduation Rates, Outcome Measures, and Financial Aid. And In *none* of these surveys, does it ever mention defers…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

No, NCES decided that in the absence of a formal App/Admit record in the 2024-25 admissions cycle, there should be no Fall 2025 matriculation record either! That is: Apply - No, Admit - No, Enroll - No in 2024-25. Let me tell you: this is a consequential decision…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

From an IPEDS reporting perspective these additional App/Admit records have few radiating effects: the IPEDS Admissions survey is the only place where these data appear. Did NCES agree with this (reasonable) assessment? I wouldn’t be writing this thread if they did…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Seems reasonable to record the Fall 2025 matriculation and then add an App and Admit record in 2024-25. That is: Apply - Yes, Admit - Yes, Enroll - Yes. This certainly “balances the books”, perhaps at the cost of generating additional App and Admit records…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

I think most people would agree on the 2023-24 record: Apply - Yes, Admit - Yes, Enroll - No. What about 2024-25? There may not have been a standard Application and Admit process despite there having been a matriculation at the end of it…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

Specifically, some of the few remaining folks at NCES made ill-advised decisions regarding how to treat students who deferred enrollment. Take, for instance, a student who applied and was admitted in 2023-24 but decided to postpone matriculating until Fall 2025…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/03/2026

One of the things that wasn’t really mentioned in the ACTS hearing yesterday was the negative effect that ACTS has had on *already-submitted* IPEDS data…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Looks like US News is gonna have to tweak their earnings metric again…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

I takes a village to produce a STEM major. At my Liberal Arts College, most majors take about 2/3rds of their courses *outside* of their major. Setting aside the benefit of a varied experience, where do folks think non-major enrollments are going to go if we keep getting rid of “low major” programs?

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

Honestly - and I get that this is a *me* thing - but I would settle for Dolphin being able to play Triforce MAME zip files (rather than having to get ISOs).

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 12/03/2026

Sorry, did you mean “merged to *main*”? I watched the video hoping that Triforce would magically be a part of .287, but that doesn’t seem to be the case?

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

ACTS continues to be the greatest example of why TRPs are absolutely essential.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 31/01/2026

In case you were interested in the full provenance of the super standout feature… www.reddit.com/r/MAME/s/pIgCLsp2BW

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

I don’t think your frame is narrow. Honestly, “having AI go over it” was my charitable version of the interactions with AI that colleagues have described to me. Personally, though, I haven’t seen a compelling use case.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Maybe this is not completed related but I think I there is something different about creating something yourself first (without AI cues) and then maybe have AI go over it vs having AI create it first and then a human going over it. I think the former will lead to a superior product.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

…like if I ask you to tell me all 50 states, you’ll be better at recalling a given subset of 20 if I give you no cues as opposed to giving you the other 30 states to start…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

There’s a concept in cognitive psych called “part-set cuing inhibition” which demonstrates that it’s harder to remember a subset of a list when you’re cued with a different subset vs no cues at all…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

There’s a larger point to be made about one person’s “inefficiency” being another person’s “thoughtfulness”, but I’ll let someone more eloquent make it!

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

I think you have to have an AIR account? But here it is: hub.airweb.org/groups/commu... There may be others, but this is the one I was referring to.

hub.airweb.org

IPEDS Knowledge Exchange

Hidden page that shows the message digest from the home page

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

A classic case of “building the plane as you fly it”. It really hammers home why new surveys often take years to be put into the rotation.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

What’s an IR person to do? If you work on it early, you end up having to make changes due to these one-offs, but if you wait for everything to be settled, you won’t make the deadline.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Not sure how much you frequent the IPEDS listserv, but LOTS of new data-related issues popping up and being answered one-by-one by the help desk. So you’ve got official documentation and a slow roll of additional context on the listserv.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

Uh oh. Although ACTS isn’t live yet, they’ve set it up on the Additional Users Permissions screen of the IPEDS Data Collection System. It’s coming…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 17/12/2025

[youre_stronger_than_me_detroiters.gif]

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 29/11/2025

With the new Model 2 improvements, I was hopeful that a few more games would finally be marked as “working”. Any idea what the dev criteria are for flipping the switch?

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

…That is to say, they must be so understaffed and so under pressure that they don’t even have the capacity to run the code before posting it.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

I spent another few hours today correcting the SAS files for the 2023-24 final datasets that were just released. As with the preliminary datasets, the syntax errors are such that simply running the code would have revealed the issues…

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Well I took the afternoon to go through the SAS code and found several more syntax errors. I offered to work with RTI on corrections and they (quickly) took me up on it. They must be SLAMMED.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Thanks so much for pointing this out. I’m currently going through the SAS code and am finding typos that are causing errors reading in the data file. So far, I’ve spent about 15min on HD2024 and and still not done. In previous years, I spent 0 minutes.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

In addition, USNWR has added metrics that are *only* available from CSC, like % of college grads out-earning HS grads. Since those data weren’t available in time for the ranking last year, USNWR had to rely on the previous years’ data. It appears that they might have to do the same thing this year.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Ranking publications like US News have only recently made the (reasonable) decision to lean more heavily on IPEDS and Scorecard data over data provided directly by schools. Looks like they may have made the wrong gamble.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

The FVT/GE reporting process has been an absolute nightmare for many of my colleagues. A great example of the admin “bloat” that is essential to complete new and ill-thought-out statutory reporting requirements.

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Simon Tonev @stonev.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

You’d like to know 30-year trends for undergraduates graduating with English majors by sex and race/ethnicity? Today: “I can get you something this afternoon.” Not-to-distant future: “If I drop everything else, I *might* be able to get you something mediocre in 3 months?”

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