Young Invincibles Statement on New College Scorecard: A Step in the Right Direction Towards Improving Transparency in Higher Education

Young Invicibles applauds the Department of Education’s introduction of the College Scorecard, housing new data about college access, affordability, and performance, which provides unprecedented transparency in higher education for students and families, institutions, and policymakers.

“The new data is a big deal, and it has implications for improving consumer information, bolstering accountability, and helping institutions improve,” said Tom Allison, Deputy Policy & Research Director. “This dataset answers important questions about employment outcomes, repayment rates, and transfers, and it breaks down the data by income, race and ethnicity, and first-generation status, information that is crucial and that we have long advocated for making public.”

“The data is at the institutional level, however, and it falls short of the flexibility and depth of a student focused-data system. For instance, we can’t break down median incomes by program or area of study. This is a problem because we know what students study is just as important as where they study. We urge the Department to continue building on this system and develop a long-term strategy to improve how we collect and use postsecondary data, by working with Congress to overturn the student unit record ban and overhaul our postsecondary data infrastructure.

Next week, Young Invincibles will publish new research on the importance of area of study, an important student choice not included in the Scorecard data, and explore racial and ethnic disparities in the majors that produce the highest and lowest incomes.