Merging OUAC and OCAS Data To DSB Data  Looking at OUAC and OCAS datasets by themselves is useful but insufficient:  Students considered to be ‘direct applicants’ by OUAC and OCAS may not be active and/or regular day school students (e.g. night school/continuing ed, left the board earlier)  The data in itself shows only who applied/got into post- secondary: it misses those who did not apply  Key demographic and achievement secondary day is missing.  Solution: link OUAC and OCAS data to DSB student data.

The TDSB Secondary Success Indicators Dataset - The Secondary Success Indicators dataset is based on a main file of all TDSB regular day school students (elementary and secondary) who were attending TDSB schools for at least some point of the school year (September 2007 to June 2008). - Multiple other variables are then merged to this base file—for example, the school attended by the student at different ‘snapshots’ of the year (October , March , June 2008).

2008 OUAC (University Applications) Data: Merging to the TDSB SSI Dataset of The 2008 OUAC data is fairly easy to merge. For each regular day school student who applies to university through OUAC, there is a Ontario Education number (OEN), and a TDSB Trillium student identifier (studid). Steps: 1) Prepare a subfile of key 2008 OUAC data, including the students Trillium ID, the OUAC reference number, and the key application and confirmation information. 2) sort by Trillium ID (studid); 3) merge to base file (of all TDSB regular day school students ).

2008 OCAS (College Applications) Data: Merging to the TDSB SSI Dataset of Challenge: Some students have a valid OEN; some have a valid Trillium ID number; while many have neither OEN or Trillium ID number. Solution: Therefore a 5 step process is needed, to determine the link to the OCAS REFERENCE NUMBER (which is unique to each OCAS registrant for the 2008 cycle).

2008 OCAS (College Applications) Data: Merging to the TDSB SSI Dataset of Steps in the process to link the OCAS reference number to the TDSB dataset: aggregate the OCAS reference number by OEN aggegate the OCAS reference number by student Trilium ID aggregate the OCAS reference number by alphanumeric ID (in both TDSB dataset and the OCAS dataset) These are then merged to the Secondary SSI dataset.

2008 OCAS (College Applications) Data: Merging to the TDSB SSI Dataset of Finally,a OUAC reference number within the Secondary SSI dataset is created, first with a common student OEN; if there is no match, I then look at student Trillium ID numbers; and finally, if there is still no match, I look at a common (and unique) alphanumeric ID.

2008 OCAS (College Applications) Data: Merging to the TDSB SSI Dataset of Once the OCAS reference number has been determined, an excerpt of the OCAS data can be merged to the TDSB dataset, by the OCAS reference number. This last step is similar to the OUAC process, except the OCAS reference number is used to merge the OCAS data, while the TDSB Trillium number is used to merge OUAC data

With excerpts of the 2008 OUAC dataset and 2008 OCAS datasets merged to the TDSB dataset, more detailed analysis can begin. Note that additional information from OUAC and OCAS can be loaded in if necessary, either through Trillium ID (OUAC) or Reference Number (OCAS). For more details of the merge process, consult the Technical Notes of the TDSB Secondary Success Indicators for

Examples of Further Analysis: 1.Information from the Secondary Success Indicators 2.Multiple years of applications data matched with multiple years of graduation data (cohort study): The Fall 2000 cohort (followed from Grade 9 enrolment in Fall 2000 to Fall 2006 graduation) linked with OUAC and OCAS confirmation (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 applications cycles)

Post-secondary Pathways: Draft Results from the TDSB Grade 9 Cohort of Fall 2000 We put the 5 years of confirmations data, and the six year cohort study, together in a variable that combines outcomes from when the students started in Grade 9 in Fall 2000, until the final year of applications in the 'direct transition' in :

Post-secondary Pathways: Draft Results from the TDSB Grade 9 Cohort of Fall % confirmed an offer of acceptance from university; 13.9% confirmed an offer of acceptance from college; 7.3% applied to post-secondary but did not confirm any offer; 10.0% graduated, but did not apply to post-secondary; 24.0% dropped out, and did not apply to post- secondary.