Doing More With Higher Ed Data

From Policy to Newsrooms

With colleges and universities under increased pressure to ensure that more students earn degrees without amassing mountains of debt, journalists are at the forefront in examining how these institutions measure up. But there’s one major obstacle that both colleges and reporters share when it comes to making sense of how well these schools are meeting their goals: insufficient data. Many key statistics available about colleges are effectively incomplete or overly burdensome to gather, making it difficult for journalists, higher education leaders, and policymakers to get the answers they need.

On February 2-3, 2017, EWA will gather journalists for a two-day conference in Philadelphia, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, to help journalists learn more about the role data plays in shaping the landscape of postsecondary education. Experts will discuss initiatives to improve the collection and availability of student-level data at the national level, including a look at the potential challenges of keeping better track of students while also protecting their privacy. This conference additionally will offer several workshops led by journalists highly experienced in using education data. They will help their peers sharpen their skills at making the best use of the data currently available for postsecondary institutions.