Department of Education Provides Update on “College Scorecard” Data Questions

In response to NAICU inquiries concerning data inaccuracies in the new College Scorecard, the Department of Education clarified an earlier reply to questions about whether, and how often, data included in institutional profiles will be updated:

“At this time, the data produced as part of the College Scorecard project come exclusively from federal sources. Data from IPEDS can be corrected using the regular NCES revisions process. Schools may update their data in NSLDS at any time, and those data will be incorporated in the next update to the data. Earnings data are pulled from tax records and therefore cannot be altered, but they are based on cohorts supplied by NSLDS, so corrections to the NSLDS elements will be reflected in the next round of earnings data.

“The Department is still determining the update schedule moving forward, and will do so in ways that align with the IPEDS schedule and with efforts to work with schools to improve reporting and data quality in NSLDS. However, we anticipate that the next update to the data will occur less than a year after launch, after which it will move to an annual update schedule.”

For other inquiries, institutions should contact the College Scorecard Help Desk directly for further information and clarifications.

For more information, please contact:
Jason Ramirez