As the cost of college rises and students go deeper into debt to finance it, families are increasingly asking whether higher education is worth the pricetag. A new commission has begun a project to provide information that could help answer that question.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which funnels millions into education, announced Thursday that it has organized a group called the which will work over the next year to assemble data to help answer questions like this: How do I know that getting a bachelor鈥檚 degree is going to help me earn more in my field than getting an associate degree? What kinds of degrees or certificates are most powerful in moving low-income students up the economic prosperity ladder?
Gates Foundation CEO Sue Desmond-Hellmann, who will co-chair the commission, said during a conference call with reporters last week that education beyond high school is still 鈥渢he best bet鈥� for young people鈥檚 futures. But students and families need more information to help them decide which post-high school pathways are best for them, she said.
Colleges and universities also need a better understanding of how well they鈥檙e contributing to economic opportunity for students, Mildred Garcia, the president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, and another commission co-chair, told reporters.
A New Way to Judge the Value of Higher Ed?
The commission intends to create a way of defining and measuring the return on investment that postsecondary education or training delivers. Its 30 members include leaders in higher education, business, advocacy, and research.
Some of the ground it intends to cover is already the focus of other projects that have informed the public debate, and will serve as resources for the commission.
The U.S. Department of Education鈥檚 , for instance, provides data showing colleges鈥� average cost and graduation rate, and the median salaries of students who received financial aid 10 years later. , based at Harvard University, uses 鈥渂ig data鈥� to show how the transformative power of education is distributed unevenly. has published a bevy of studies exploring the earnings that come with various types of certificates and degrees. (The Center鈥檚 director, Anthony Carnevale, is one of the new commission鈥檚 members.)
Garcia said that the new panel will produce more than 鈥渁 report that will just go on the shelf.鈥� It鈥檚 aiming to offer 鈥渁ctionable, relevant information,鈥� she said. It wasn鈥檛 entirely clear yet what form the commission鈥檚 findings will take. But officials on the call said the data and research they assemble will be be easily available to the public through the group鈥檚 website.
The aim of the new panel isn鈥檛 to produce a set of college ratings or rankings, but to define a way to think about, and evaluate, college that focuses on its economic benefits. For instance: How much power does a bachelor鈥檚 degree in English have to help a student repay her loan debt compared to a master鈥檚 degree in engineering or an associate degree in automotive technology? And do those numbers change if the analysis focuses on students of color, or low-income students?
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The commission is still figuring out how much to focus analysis on the vast and complicated terrain of certifications and training programs that fall short of an associate degree. Michelle Asha Cooper, the president of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, told reporters that the group will be 鈥渓ooking at the sub-associate level where there are reliable data available from reputable sources.鈥�
The Institute for Higher Education Policy will be the managing partner of the Value Commission, lending logistics and analytical support during its year of work. It will also form the research panel that will support the panel as it explores and assembles data for public use.
Desmond-Hellman said that while the Gates Foundation has supported the launch of the Value Commission, it hasn鈥檛 yet set aside a specific amount of money for grants to support it.
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