IHEP urges National Board for Education Sciences to protect vital postsecondary sample studies

Washington, DC (December 4, 2023) – The Institute for Higher Education Policy recently sent a letter to the National Board for Education Sciences (NBES), urging the board to advise the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) to protect and preserve IES’ postsecondary sample studies: the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B), the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), and the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS).

IES will discontinue B&B, citing resource constraints in the Department of Education’s FY 2024 budget request. Unlike other data sources, NPSAS and BPS are nationally representative and allow data to be broken out by a range of student characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, gender, and financial background.

The letter urges IES to:

1. Reinstate B&B: This study provides valuable data on students’ experiences in college and beyond, and its discontinuation would create a significant gap in our understanding of higher education.
2. Preserve NPSAS and BPS: These studies are essential for tracking trends in student aid and postsecondary enrollment.
3. Maintain the collection frequency of NPSAS: IHEP recommends that the full-scale NPSAS be conducted at least every four years, and the administrative data collection every two years.

Read the full letter below.

November 30, 2023

Ellie Pelaez
Designated Federal Official (DFO) for NBES
U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (IES)
400 Maryland Avenue SW, PCP 4126–1
Washington, DC 20202

To whom it may concern,

We urge the National Board for Education Sciences (NBES) to advise the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) to protect and preserve IES’ postsecondary sample studies: the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B), the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), and the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS).

The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit research, policy, and advocacy organization committed to driving systemic change in higher education to advance equitable outcomes and generational impact for communities historically marginalized on the basis of race, ethnicity, or income. We provide timely, evidence-based, and student-centered research to inform policy decisions with a particular focus on improving racial and socioeconomic equity, postsecondary value, and postsecondary data quality.

We recognize the importance of IES’ data collections and studies in helping policymakers and researchers understand national trends in higher education and student outcomes, including enrollment, completion, affordability, and post-college success. Our recommendations are informed by our research into how high-quality, complete, accessible, and disaggregated postsecondary data can promote student access and success and close opportunity and outcome gaps. Better data is an essential building block for evidence-driven policymaking, and empowers policymakers and institutions with information to improve student outcomes.

The postsecondary sample studies conducted by IES provide invaluable insights about postsecondary pathways, affordability, and outcomes to inform policymaking, field-driven research, and ongoing efforts to promote student success. For more than 30 years, NPSAS, BPS, and B&B have yielded comprehensive insights about how students pay for college, their progress through college to degree completion, and their employment and loan repayment experiences after graduation. Unlike other data sources, these studies are nationally representative and allow data to be broken out by a range of student characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, gender, and financial background.

We are deeply troubled by IES’ unilateral decision to discontinue the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study. B&B is the only nationally representative source for insights into what happens to students after they earn a bachelor’s degree, including the value students receive from their postsecondary investment. At a time when policymakers want more information about the return on investment of postsecondary education, IES should strengthen, not eliminate, tools that help institutions, researchers, and advocates answer critical questions about graduates’ experiences. We urge IES to reinstate B&B and restart collection of data that shed light on the experiences of graduates over time. We also urge IES to preserve NPSAS and BPS, including by at least maintaining a collection frequency of the full-scale NPSAS every four years and the administrative data collection every two years.

Additionally, as IES develops its fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, we urge the agency to request sufficient funding to continue conducting—and strengthening—the postsecondary sample studies. Now is the time to protect and preserve the tools that enable robust understanding of students’ postsecondary experiences. Without them, we lose a vital evidence base to inform policy development to support college access, affordability, and success for all students.

We appreciate the opportunity to provide written comments to NBES, in advance of its December 2023 meeting. If you have any questions, please contact Diane Cheng, Vice President of Research and Policy (dcheng@ihep.org).

Respectfully,

Diane Cheng
Vice President of Research and Policy
The Institute for Higher Education Policy