3 higher ed metrics that can truly benefit today's students

A new framework is seeking to make higher ed metrics from institutions more transparent.

The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) has produced a comprehensive new report that details the importance of a proposed new higher ed metrics framework that aims to better represent and inform students of all backgrounds.

The report, titled Toward Convergence: A Technical Guide for the Postsecondary Metrics Framework, is a companion piece that provides important details tto support and build on the findings outlined in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s February 2016 report Answering the Call, which proposed a new higher ed metrics framework to measure the performance of institutions. That framework is intended to help policymakers, administrators and learners better understand how institutions are performing, and draws on lessons learned from a decade of efforts by states and institutions to collect and use better data.

Data Rich but Information Poor Not Good for Students

Above all, the newly released report advocates for a transparent postsecondary system that facilitates effective policy and practice, and informed choices for learners seeking degrees. Toward Convergence emphasizes the notion that postsecondary education is currently data rich but information poor, which makes improving data quality, transparency and use all the more important to allow more students (especially low-income students and students of color) the opportunity to gain access to and succeed in higher education as well as to achieve economic and social prosperity upon graduating.

The report also enumerates the technical details of the newly proposed framework. IHEP analyzed the higher ed metrics and definitions used by institutional and state initiatives, along with data specifications in national data collections, to identify points of consensus in the field. The resulting key higher ed metrics fall into three major categories: performance, efficiency and equity.

(Next page: More on the three key higher ed metrics that can benefit students)

3 Higher Ed Metrics to Benefit Students

“This report draws on the knowledge and experience of higher education leaders and experts to lay out in detail the metrics we should be collecting – and explains why those data will make a difference, for all students, but particularly for those who traditionally have been underserved by higher education,” says IHEP President Michelle Cooper in the report. “Until now, only some institutions have been willingly and voluntarily collecting data to answer critical questions about who attends college, who succeeds in and after college, and how college is financed. But, the field needs a core set of comprehensive and comparable higher ed metrics and should incorporate those metrics into federal and state data systems. Doing so will make the data available for all students in all institutions, not only those who voluntarily collect and report it.”

The first key metric is performance, which measures institutional performance related to student access, progress, completion, cost, and post-college outcomes.

Next, efficiency measures are driven by increased interest in college costs and affordability, and consider how resources impact college completion.

Finally, equity measures seek to include all students and accurately represent the higher education experience of underserved populations that may have been discounted by other data collections.

Overall, these three key metrics are designed to answer critical questions about college access, who succeeds in and after college, and how college is financed. The report outlines these critical questions to better serve students of all backgrounds by measuring “each element as accurately and comprehensively as possible while balancing field convergence and data availability and feasibility” to give the best possible look at what leads to various post-college outcomes.

While the report takes great care to detail these three key higher ed metrics, it is just the beginning according to IHEP. The organization also plans to continue the conversation about postsecondary data and systems through its Postsecondary Data Collaborative (PostsecData), a coalition of more than 36 organizations seeking to improve data quality, transparency and use. Under IHEP’s leadership, PostsecData will continue to advocate for and share information around a long-term data and infrastructure improvement effort, working with partners to encourage institutions and policymakers to adopt the metrics framework and standardize it as a best practice nationwide.

For the full in-depth report, click here.