by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed
The Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics has unwraped a revision of the IPEDS database that will expand the government’s tools for measuring postsecondary outcomes, especially for the students who, for lack of a better term, are frequently called “nontraditional” (even though they now outnumber the “traditional” 18- to 22-year-olds). While the changes are partial and leave many policy makers wanting more — most of which cannot be accomplished unless and until the federal government ends its ban on collecting student-level data — they are widely seen as a vast improvement. “This is a step in the right direction, and it’s a big step forward for community colleges, particularly,” said Andrew Nichols, director of higher education research and data analytics at the Education Trust, which advocates for low-income and minority students.
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