Table of Contents
- Fueling the Fight for Net Neutrality
- Embracing Ranked-Choice Voting as a Pathway to Pluralism
- Measuring U.S. Drone Use and Misuse
- Fulfilling the Promise of Child Savings Accounts
- Linking the Individual Mandate and Social Responsibility
- Tracking Terrorism in the United States
- Early Education Doesn't End at Pre-K
- Making Higher Education Outcomes Transparent
- Redefining Care Policy
- Using TV "White Spaces" to Create Equitable Internet Access
- Investing in America's Future Thinkers
- Proposing the Public Option
- Creating a Public Interest Technology Sector
- Building a New Practice of Public Problem-Solving
- Expanding Access to High School-Age Youth for High-Quality Apprenticeship Opportunities
- Engaging North Korea
- A Universal 401(k) Plan
- Measuring the Internet for Everyone
- Rethinking Economic Policy
- Documenting the Long Wars
- Ranking Digital Rights
- Future Tense
- Using Fiction to Make Policy More鈥ealistic
- Pop-Up Magazine
- Developing an MA in Global Security
- Helping Communities Deploy Mesh Networks
- Partnering with Universities
Making Higher Education Outcomes Transparent
Idea
States and the federal government spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year to help support students as they enroll in colleges and universities across the country. And yet, despite this investment, students and policymakers know shockingly little about how well particular schools serve students. The answer to the question, 鈥淚s college worth it?鈥 is an unequivocal yes鈥攐n average. But the real question is: 鈥淚n which program, at which college, at which price, and for which students is it worth it?鈥 Regrettably, we can鈥檛 answer that question because the private higher education lobby convinced Congress to pass a law to ban the Department of Education from using already-collected information in order to answer it. The Education Policy Program has led the fight to change this鈥攖o end what we call the College Blackout.
Incubation
After Congress passed the ban on better data in 2008, the issue was considered a 鈥渄one deal,鈥 and revisiting it was treated as a political non-starter and a fool鈥檚 errand. But 国产视频 worked to find solutions and build political will, leading directly to the introduction of a bill in 2011 that would create a work-around to the ban. Future iterations of the bill capitalized on the growing calls for transparency and improved on the legislation, adding new support from policymakers. Future iterations of the bill capitalized on the growing calls for transparency by overturning the ban completely and adding new legislative support. In 2014, 国产视频 released a now-seminal report, College Blackout, which shed light on the history of and problems with the ban. We have since worked to build a broad, bipartisan coalition of students, student advocates, colleges, employers, researchers, and other stakeholders to advocate for better data to help answer critical questions about college outcomes.
Impact
Since the release of 国产视频鈥檚 report, bipartisan momentum for overturning the ban has skyrocketed. In 2017, Sens. Hatch, Warren, Cassidy, and Whitehouse introduced the College Transparency Act鈥攁 bill that has garnered support from dozens of other members of the House and Senate from both parties and over 130 outside organizations. Following the 2018 midterm elections, a New York Times article named the College Transparency Act as one of six key issues likely to break the Washington gridlock