On November 20, the Department of Education (ED) released a redesign of the College Scorecard, which now includes data on debt levels and potential first-year earnings, broken down by program level. The new earnings data in the College Scorecard is obtained from federal tax records. Approximately 41,000 programs across the nation are covered, including apprenticeships, certificate programs, 2-year and 4-year programs, and some graduate programs. Specifically, the debt data comes from students who graduated in 2016-2017 and the earnings data comes from students who graduated in 2015-2016.
ED emphasizes that the new design of the College Scorecard allows students to make more informed and personalized decisions when trying to find a school that is the best fit for them. Some of the features they highlight include that students can now make comparisons for up to ten different school options. Also, ED now differentiates between full-time, part-time, first-time and transfer students. Other features allow students to search for potential schools by acceptance rate, ACT/SAT scores and location.
Some have questioned the relevance of the earnings data since it is based on a graduate’s first year in the workforce, which does not account for the fact that students’ earnings gradually increase over time at rates that often vary with occupation. However, the ED has said it will update the data annually and provide ten years of post-graduation earnings data. Other concerns have also been raised regarding the effectiveness of the data since it is taken from different samples of students, which could potentially skew some of the findings.
Overall, providing more readily-accessible information to students about postsecondary programs is a good thing. However, it is important to ensure students are aware of how the data were collected, what is actually measured and any potential shortcomings, which is inherent in any large-scale data project. ACTE will continue to monitor the new college scorecard and future updates to it.
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