It’s Time to Close Gaps in Higher Education Outcomes Data

When assessing which college to attend or what major to pursue, students should have easy access to data on the graduation and earnings outcomes of former students. This data is key to making an informed decision about their investment in higher education. In fact, students do have access to such data through the U.S. Department of Education’s College Scorecard.

The College Scorecard is a common-sense tool helping students make informed choices about their studies. The only problem? The tool has gaping holes in earnings data, omitting nearly one in three undergraduate students who don’t receive financial aid administered by the U.S. Department of Education. This truncated data gives students an incomplete and potentially misleading picture of a program or institution’s performance. The outcomes of students forgoing federal financial aid are just as important as those from students receiving federal aid, and it’s critical we count all students’ outcomes.

Congress is working to fix this. Last month, lawmakers of both parties on the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions voted overwhelmingly to pass the College Transparency Act and give students a complete picture of student graduation and earnings outcomes. The bill includes strong privacy protections while enabling the sharing of aggregated earnings outcomes counting all students, not just a fraction. Notably, the legislation would allow the government to report data it largely already has. It will also allow policymakers to report outcomes of subgroups of students such as those who are veterans to better understand educational approaches that best serve these students.

APLU has been a key partner with lawmakers in crafting the legislation. The public should have access to accurate, comprehensive higher education data. As the association whose members include the nation’s public and land-grant universities, APLU has been a leading advocate for the College Transparency Act to bolster transparency in the higher education sector. It’s time for Congress to get the job done. Both chambers should pass the legislation, sending it to the president for his signature, ending the data blackout that leaves students and families in the dark.