The country's higher education data systems are outdated and unable to help students, colleges, and policy makers answer some of their most pressing questions. That's the premise of a new paper from the Institute for Higher Education Policy that suggests improvements.
The paper, "Mapping the Postsecondary Data Domain: Problems and Possibilities," was released on Thursday as part of the second round of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s "Reimagining Aid Design and Delivery"project. The institute, known as IHEP, is part of the project's consortium on simplification and transparency.
The College Board, which is part of the same group, released its paper,which focused on simplification, last week. IHEP's paper and one forthcoming from the New America Foundation offer different approaches to enhancing transparency.
The institute's paper builds on previous calls for better data, said Jennifer Engle, vice president for policy research at IHEP. "We are trying to help move the conversation forward by bringing together the learning from the field," said Ms. Engle, a co-author of the paper.
The time is ripe, the paper says, for a "comprehensive, nationwide approach to postsecondary data."
The paper considers what data elements are needed to answer the questions students, colleges, and policy makers have about access, completion, cost, and outcomes. It then outlines which of those elements are missing from current databases and how difficult it would be to collect them.
Improving databases like the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and the National Student Loan Data System would be possible, as the paper demonstrates, Ms. Engle said. But doing so would increase the reporting burden on colleges.
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Group-Proposes-Improvements-in/145137