{"id":1090,"date":"2013-03-02T18:57:48","date_gmt":"2013-03-02T18:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2023-09-13T15:41:13","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T15:41:13","slug":"keeping-score","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/?p=1090","title":{"rendered":"Keeping Score"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SwatScoreSm\"<\/a>President Obama announced the new “College Scorecard” in his state of the union address<\/a>, and the interactive online tool<\/a> was released the next day. \u00a0The intended purpose of the tool is to\u00a0provide useful information to families about affordability and student success at individual colleges. \u00a0Since then, the IR community has been buzzing. \u00a0 Much of the data in the tool is reported via the IR offices, and many of us are already being asked to explain the data and the way it is presented. \u00a0Several of our listservs became quite busy as my colleagues compared notes on glitches in the lookup feature of the tool (zip codes searches were problematic early on) and the accuracy of the data, and debated the clarity of the labels and the wisdom of the simple presentation.<\/p>\n

This project is an example of a wonderful goal that is incredibly hard to execute well. \u00a0 Seeing all the press coverage (both mainstream and higher ed press) and hearing from my colleagues, I think about the balance of such a project. \u00a0 It seems reasonable that after thorough development and testing, there would be a point at which the best course of action is to just move forward and release it even though it is not perfect. \u00a0 But where is that point? \u00a0One could argue whether this was the correct point for the Scorecard project, but all of the attention is creating increased awareness by the public, as well as pressures on the designers for improvement, and on colleges for accuracy and accountability.<\/p>\n

\"HarmGoodSmall\"<\/p>\n

I wonder how many people remember the clunky online tool, COOL (the College Opportunities On Line), from the early 00’s, and the growing pains that it went through as it evolved into the College Navigator<\/a>, a pretty spiffy – and very useful – tool for families to find a wealth of information about colleges? \u00a0 These things evolve and if not useful and effective, won’t survive. \u00a0 The trick is not doing more harm than good while the kinks are worked out.<\/p>\n

What’s in the Scorecard and where did it come from? \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>The Scorecard has six categories of information: \u00a0Undergraduate Enrollment, Costs, Graduation Rates, Loan Default Rate, Median Borrowing, and Employment. \u00a0 Information about the data and its sources can be found at the Scorecard website<\/a>, but it takes a little work! \u00a0 Click on the far right square that says “About the Scorecard” on the middle row of squares. \u00a0From the text that spins up, click “Here”, which opens another window (not sure if these are “pop-ups” or “floating frames”), and that’s where the descriptions are.<\/p>\n

The data for the first three items come from our reporting to the federal government through the IPEDS (Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), which I have posted about before<\/a>. \u00a0 Here is yet another reason to make sure we report accurately! \u00a0The next two categories,\u00a0Loan Default Rate and Median Borrowing, get their data from federal reporting through the\u00a0National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). \u00a0 The last item, Employment, provides no actual data, but rather a sly nudge for users of the system to contact the institutions directly.<\/p>\n

While each of these measures creates its own challenge to simplicity and clarity of explanation, one of the more confusing, and hence controversial, measures is the “Cost.” \u00a0 The display says “Net price is what undergraduate students pay after grants and scholarships (financial aid you don\u2019t have to pay back) are subtracted from the institution\u2019s cost of attendance.” \u00a0This is an important concept, and we all want students to understand why they should not just look at the “sticker price” of a college, but at what students actually pay after accounting for aid. \u00a0 Some very expensive private colleges can actually cost less than public institutions once aid is factored in, and this is a very difficult message to get out! \u00a0But the more precise definition behind the scenes (that floating frame!) says “the average yearly price actually charged to first-time, full-time undergraduate students receiving student aid at an institution of higher education after deducting such aid.” \u00a0The first point of confusion is that this net price is calculated only for first-time, full-time, aided students<\/strong><\/em>, rather than averaged across all students. \u00a0 The second is the actual formula, which takes some more digging. \u00a0 It uses the “cost of attendance,” which is tuition, fees, room, and board, PLUS<\/strong><\/em> a standard estimate of the cost for books, supplies, and other expenses. \u00a0 The aid dollars include Pell grants, other federal grants, state or local government grants (including tuition waivers), and institutional grants (scholarship aid that is not repaid). \u00a0 And the third point that may cause confusion is, of course, the final, single figure itself which is an average, while no one is average.<\/p>\n

Will a family dig that deep? \u00a0 Would they understand the terminology and nuances if they did? \u00a0 Would they be able to guess whether their student would be an aid recipient, and if so, whether they’d be like the average aid recipient? \u00a0 The net price presentation that already exists in the College Navigator has an advantage over the single figure shown in the Scorecard, because it shows the value for each of a number of income ranges. \u00a0 While aid determinations are based on much more than simple income, at least this presentation more clearly demonstrates that the net price for individuals varies – by a lot!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Obama announced the new “College Scorecard” in his state of the union address, and the interactive online tool was released the next day. \u00a0The intended purpose of the tool is to\u00a0provide useful information to families about affordability and student success at individual colleges. \u00a0Since then, the IR community has been buzzing. \u00a0 Much of … Continue reading Keeping Score<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1551,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions\/1551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.swarthmore.edu\/institutional-research\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}