Page 2 - Campus Technology, June 2017

LO G I N
CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | June 2017
The Risk — and Value — of College Transparency
As Congress proposes a new postsecondary data reporting framework to help calculate the worth of higher education, security and privacy issues loom.
AS A PRODUCT of a liberal arts education, it’s hard for me to 2017, a bipartisan bill introduced last month in the United how the data might be used, shared and more, and how the relate to the vocational attitude toward higher ed that seems to States Senate and House of Representatives. “Today’s bill addresses them. What struck me most was this: “As a be pervasive these days: the assumption that a college degree students and their families need accurate, accessible, and privacy protection measure, it is vital that the data be strictly should lead to a quantifiable result in terms of salary and success comprehensive information in order to choose the college limited to only what is needed for well-defined reporting re- in the workplace. Or even that the topics studied should be that is the best fit for their individual needs,” asserted a fact quirements on student outcomes. If data was never collected linked to specific “job skills.” The idealist in me thinks that college sheet on the bill. “Important information about whether or not in the first place, it can’t be misused later,” he wrote. “Keep- should rather be about personal growth, about developing the a particular college or major pays off for students is currently ing the data tightly in scope will allay concerns that compre- ability to take on future challenges regardless of course of study. incomplete. For example, despite the vast majority of students hensive, problematic files are being assembled on students.” An archeology major, for example, could end up landing a job as citing finding a good job as their primary reason for going to I wonder about how the definition of “data in scope” might a product manager at Google (as one of my friends did). college, there is currently no easy way to evaluate the labor- change over time. And once the data is collected, there it sits,
But the pragmatist in me knows that isn’t realistic for many people, particularly in this era when the non-traditional student has become the norm. For someone juggling family and work responsibilities, the financial risk of taking on student loan
market success of various programs or majors .... It’s time to modernize the postsecondary data reporting framework in order to more accurately report college outcomes.”
The bill proposes a new system to collect student-level data on graduation rates, salary/employment outcomes, etc. And that’s where we all should feel a little queasy. Despite the obvious benefits of having access to data that can answer questions about the cost/value equation of higher education, the inherent security and privacy concerns of such a system are significant.
A recent blog post by Christopher Sadler, education data and privacy fellow for the Open Technology Institute at policy think tank New America, outlines many of the issues around
ready to be leaked, breached or worse. Without getting too deep into Big Brother conspiracy theory, there are so many ways for the system to go wrong.
As Sadler concluded, “The benefits of a data system capable of providing students and researchers answers about the worth of higher education would of very high value, but it must be created with a forward-looking stance towards protecting privacy to the highest degree possible.” Let’s hope the “highest degree possible” is enough.
Continue the conversation.
E-mail me at rkelly@1105media.com.
Rhea Kelly,
Executive Editor
debt to pursue a degree better produce results — preferably monetary — or at least an increase in opportunities. So how does that student figure out what college or program will provide the best return on investment?
That is the driving question purportedly behind the College Transparency Act of
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