About
The College Scorecard, which was released on September 12, 2015, grew out of the Obama Administration’s failed attempt to create a federal postsecondary ratings system. Broadly, the scorecard compiles existing data – such as net price, graduation rates, and student body diversity – to create institutional profiles. It also includes a host of metrics including salary data, median graduate debt, and student loan repayment information. Although the College Scorecard is preferable to a federal ratings system, questions remain regarding the validity and usefulness of the tool.
In many respects, the limitations in the Scorecard may make the college search and selection process confusing for students and their families—given that it contains no qualitative information. The variables included on the Scorecard are therefore limited in their ability to guide a student to his/her best-fit college.
History
The idea of a federal postsecondary ratings system was first proposed by President Obama in August 2013. In December 2014, the Administration released a detailed framework of metrics that it was considering for inclusion in the ratings system. Throughout the process, NAICU presidents actively engaged in discussions of the proposal, wrote letters and op-eds, and participated in listening sessions and meetings with Administration officials.
Department of Education officials announced in June 2015, that they were moving away from a postsecondary ratings system. Officials noted that NAICU members’ arguments were particularly “articulate, passionate, and provocative.”
The Scorecard also faced criticism in 2017, when it was revealed that it had been publishing inaccurate loan repayment rates for most colleges. Blaming the blunder on a “coding error,” the Department was quick to fix the mistakes.
The Trump Administration made several adjustments to the College Scorecard during its tenure. In 2017, the Department of Education released an updated version of the Scorecard that permits students to create a customized search in which they can compare selected institutions to each other. Allowing students to create their own comparison groups has been a longtime NAICU policy goal. Likewise, in 2018, the Department altered the College Scorecard to remove national comparison data that had the potential to provide consumers with a misleading or incomplete impression of an institution’s value.
One of the most significant changes the Trump Administration made to the Scorecard data came in 2019, when the Department updated the tool to include program-level data. Specifically, the Scorecard now contains data on median student debt and earnings by field of study. Based on a 2020 update, the Scorecard now contains program-level data on median earnings two years after students graduate. NAICU is concerned that this publication of program-level data could amplify calls in Congress to limit eligibility for Title IV financial aid based on a student’s major.
The Biden Administration has followed its predecessors' lead in terms of maintaining and updating the College Scorecard. For example, the Department added a new feature that allows users to compare institutional metrics against national medians.
Meanwhile, one could argue that the Scorecard has served, at least in some ways, as inspiration for the new institutional accountability framework the Biden Administration established as its financial value transparency regulations. Although there are minor variations in the data sets, the financial value transparency regulations, like the Scorecard, rely heavily on program-level student debt and earnings metrics. Above all, both tools reflect policymakers' increasing focus on financial metrics as a measure of institutional value.
