As part of the college’s DEI work it’s important for us to understand the economic value of the degree and so we wanted to share this exciting update from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation about their work in this arena.
The Institute for Higher Education Policy has announced a new tool, supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: the Equitable Value Explorer, designed to put the power of the Postsecondary Value Commission’s framework at the fingertips of academic decision-makers.
Using publicly available data from more than 4,000 higher education institutions across the country, this data tool will help institutional leaders, researchers, and policymakers explore the economic value that colleges and universities deliver to students.
It will help illuminate which students are getting ahead, which are just getting by, and which are falling behind. It will also show where institutions stand in relation to equitable value thresholds defined by the commission (for example, Threshold 0 means student earnings are at or above those of high school graduates plus total net price of college), which will allow leaders to have a more informed strategy and direction toward an equitable system of higher education. The tool will also help researchers advance the conversation about how to view these data (and what additional data are needed) to better support higher education’s role in creating equitable value for students.
Even while institutions are improving their practice in examining completion and transfer success numbers and translating that into action, students and families are voicing an even greater expectation for higher education value, which is prompting institutions to ask for additional supports in unpacking outcomes. Institutions need to “know their own numbers” – to better understand current student outcomes, see existing gaps for how well they are serving specific student populations, and use that information to change their policies and practices in ways that will lead to more equitable value for students. This tool is designed to offer support to do just that.
The tool is meant for helping institutions improve and ensure that value is equitably delivered to all students regardless of race, background, circumstance, or gender. What it is not meant for is to shame or blame institutions for not “scoring” as high as others. This tool is a manifestation of the belief in the power of data and transparency, but with the understanding that context is critical and factors like institutional mission, student population, state policy and financial support, local and regional labor market conditions, and history all affect the numbers you see.
At the same time, the designers acknowledge there are limitations in publicly available data. The tool leverages the best available public data from the College Scorecard and other sources, but those data are incomplete. For one thing, a lack of earnings outcomes measured separately for students by race/ethnicity, family income, and gender, make comparisons for how the system is serving specific demographic groups difficult. Additionally, it is not yet able to fully measure wealth outcomes of former students. Insights from the University of Texas are also included – UT conducted a first-of-its-kind analysis that enabled the commission to assess variations in economic returns by race/ethnicity, income, gender, and type of institution and program, in a way that accounts for variations in access and institutional diversity. It was largely through UT’s analysis that the commission determined that the value higher education currently delivers varies greatly by who a student is – meaning their race/ethnicity, income and gender, which institutions and programs they attend, and whether they complete a credential.
Additionally, while this tool focuses on economic value, the commission notes that they also recognize that non-economic value is extremely important, both for individuals’ well-being and their economic outcomes, as illustrated by the commission’s research.
November 15, 2021