The Importance of Being Driven – By Data: Part One

Dr. Susan Coia Gailey
Founder
Data-based Institutional Research, Assessment & Reporting Systems

Have you sensed rumblings about mandatory reporting by colleges and universities of the percentage of recent graduates who are working in their major field of study and their starting salaries? The metric duo defines the business term, return on investment (ROI), and applies it to college education. Instead of having stockholders, per se, we have stakeholders.

Was it not so long ago that we were accountable for student loan default and graduation rates? Next were merit-based versus need-based grants, learning outcomes and cost of education. What’s more, we’re not accountable to the federal government. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in the US Department of Education has been posting our IPEDS data in a reviewer-friendly report that is accessible to everyone; it’s called College Navigator (www.nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/). What was once between just?us and the?federal government is getting to the general public and our various constituents. Mainstream media discovered easy and reliable information sources, such as IPEDS and?The?College Board, to write provocative articles. There might be more to come.

For example, College Measures (www.collegemeasures.org) is spearheading an Economic Success Metrics Program in partnership?with the American Institutes for Research. Open to the public, a reviewer-friendly search tool shows a breakdown of graduates’ salaries by college and major field. Figures are already reported for Arkansas and Tennessee; Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Virginia are soon to be completed. This might pit school against school and major against major, possibly to impact critical mass for running major programs of study at any given school.

Additionally, the Georgetown Public Policy Institute publishes reviewer-friendly tables of median salaries by major for people with bachelors and graduate degrees in the major (http://cew.georgetown.edu/whatsitworth). Through its Employment Projections Program, the Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes occupational outlook data, which shows growing and declining professions and occupations and which fuels articles about the employment prospects and pay for specific jobs that can be tied to major fields of study (www.bls.gov/emp/). Finally, results of the survey by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools are published in which employers rate the workforce skills of recent college graduates (www.acics.org/events/content.aspx?id=4718). Reporters have the fodder to present, and tie together, the elements of ROI for the general public.

With the flood of data directly available to the public and the mainstream media reporters to write provocative articles, there is already growing public awareness of ROI that is putting the collateral damager of college education, specifically, family loans (i.e. student loans and parent loans) on the radar for families to consider before they are indebted. Thus far, many families accept the debt in their financial aid package because it is put on the table well after their student has his/her heart set on a school. What’s next? There could be a paradigm shift in college choice by college-bound families. In presenting institutions’ figures in the context of economic realities, reporters might reframe their thinking and influence their behavior. Regardless, the demand for data will only increase and the need for figures at our fingertips will be more and more crucial for accountability and for being proactive – even preemptive – versus reactive with strategic direction and in strategic planning.

Continue to part two by clicking here.