Dive Brief:
- USA Funds announced $3.5 million in grant awards this week to four entities interested in developing new tools to measure college return on investment in distinctly different ways than the Obama administration’s College Scorecard.
- According to the company, its grantees will use longitudinal data on education and workforce outcomes, measure earnings data at the program level, factor qualitative measures into ROI calculations, incorporate data about workforce training programs, and analyze credential supply and employer demand.
- The four grant recipients are the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, and National Skills Coalition.
Dive Insight:
The Obama administration’s College Scorecard has been praised and criticized for the new data it brings to families engaged in college searches. Many are pleased it makes more information available to prospective students. Others argue the data does more harm than good because of its lack of context. Student outcomes are illustrated with earnings data, but only at the institutional level. For one, future earnings are but one piece of the value of higher education. Secondly, engineers generally make more than journalists, for example, and the data doesn’t clarify for students that the earnings data may not be relevant for certain career paths.