When we lose the data, we lose accountability

In 2017, the New York Times published a shocking finding: The City University of New York (CUNY) system pushed six times more low-income students into the middle class than all Ivy Leagues and four other elite schools combined. Specifically, nearly 3,000 students from the bottom fifth income distribution in CUNY’s 1980 class ended up in the top three-fifths, while the Ivies, Duke University, MIT, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago saw just over 500.

A group of researchers used tax records, Pell grant records, and other data to conduct this research. They also relied on the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, or IPEDS. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS has collected data since 1993 on nearly all postsecondary institutions in the U.S. The IPEDS survey has evolved over time to collect data on faculty pay; student-to-administrator ratio; four, six, and eight-year graduation rates; and many other metrics. Researchers and journalists use IPEDS to explore socioeconomic diversity (or lack thereof) on campuses, determine the financial health of colleges, and even break down institutions’ expenditures.

IPEDS also puts this critical information into the hands of students themselves. College Scorecard uses IPEDS data to inform students and families about a prospective school’s graduation rates and the expected earnings and loan default rates of its graduates. Most students who attend college do not graduate in four years. Picking the right school can be the difference between graduating with the knowledge needed for a fulfilling career or leaving without a degree and with unsurmountable debt.

But the future of IPEDS, and in turn, accountability is murky. In early February, the Trump administration canceled almost $900 million in contracts to the Institute of Education Sciences, which houses the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the agency responsible for IPEDS. Already understaffed, it is unclear whether NCES will be able to continue running IPEDS without the funding.

IPEDS is not perfect, and many nontraditional institutions find that the data do not accurately capture what is happening on their campuses. But it is difficult to steer a parked car, and, after February’s cuts, we may have to rebuild the car altogether.