Higher education advocates are watching how the Trump administration’s canceling this week of nearly $900 million in contracts supporting the functions of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) may affect various Education Department (ED) tools and data, such as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).
IES is an independent research agency within the department that houses the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and funds research on improving educational outcomes by evaluating interventions. NCES is ED’s statistical agency and is responsible for collecting, cleaning and disseminating aggregate results from key higher education data collections, including IPEDS, the National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey (NPSAS) and key longitudinal surveys like Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS).
NCES has long relied on contracted research organizations to service these data collections, through conducting surveys, managing web-based reporting portals, cleaning data and aggregating data to be publicly available to stakeholders. Reports indicate that 89 contracts have been canceled, including key contracts related to NPSAS and BPS and basic support functions for NCES staff.
The Trump administration has affirmed that it will maintain key consumer-facing tools, including the College Scorecard and College Navigator. Both tools are populated with IPEDS data, so IPEDS will likely be kept as well, although decreased capacity and contract disruptions may mean service interruptions to the reporting portal, delayed staff responses to questions or issues, and delays in publishing data collections. The fate of IPEDS Technical Review Panels, which convene stakeholders and data experts to improve IPEDS collections, is unclear.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) is following how IES contract changes will impact its member colleges. AACC will continue to communicate the importance of maintaining the current IPEDS web-based reporting portal and ensuring that the IPEDS reporting – mandated by the Higher Education Act (HEA) – is as consistent and reliable a process as possible.
