Dive Brief:
- A new analysis from Brookings questions whether "Pell proxy," or the tendency to measure an institution's low-income population by the number of students receiving Pell grants, actually paints an accurate picture of the economic backgrounds represented on campus.
- Not only do all low-income students not receive Pell grants — only 68.7% of low-income students received a Pell Grant in the 2011-12 school year — but "in that same year, only 65.7% of Pell Grant recipients were low-income students while the other 34.3% were middle-income or above," the report found.
- The discrepancy is largely attributed to the way Congress allocates Pell funding and its pacing with inflation.
Dive Insight:
The Brookings finding again highlights the flaws in the way data is tracked and collected, both at the federal and local levels. In order for institutions to best serve their student populations, they have to have an accurate accounting of who these students are. Not only that, but having accurate data is critical to the ability of institutions to tell their stories in the media and in the legislatures to win over public support. Whether it's knowing how many students will likely be on their own financially so the institution can create more wrap-around services, or it's knowing the graduation rates are inclusive of transfers and others who are not first-time, full-time enrollees in the fall semester, leaders must take greater care to track and communicate their own data.