Prime Highlights
- Education Secretary Linda McMahon asks NCES to gather admissions information by race, sex, GPA, and test scores from U.S. colleges.
- A new audit system will guarantee accuracy and encourage merit-based admissions.
Key Fact
- Disaggregated admissions data now have to be reported by all Title IV-eligible institutions through IPEDS.
- Noncompliance can jeopardize access to federal student aid programs.
Key Background
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has sent a directive to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) mandating colleges and universities to report disaggregated, accurate admissions data. The action is aimed at boosting transparency in higher education and compliance with federal law forbidding race-based discrimination in admissions.
In creating new regulations, institutions would be required to report race- and sex-specific information about applicants, admitted students, and enrolled students, and GPA, scores on standardized tests, and other admission variables most significant. The NCES will integrate this reporting within the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), which already is required from all institutions that receive Title IV federal assistance. An audit system would be instituted to guarantee precision, uniformity, and consistency in reporting by all institutions.
This mandate comes after the 2023 Supreme Court decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard banning consideration of race for college admissions under Title VI and the Fourteenth Amendment. The case again put the mysterious nature of admission processes in highly selective schools in the spotlight. Secretary McMahon added that tax-paid universities have no need to seek lawsuits to decide if they are, in fact, practicing discriminatory measures, and called for the restoration of meritocracy and scholastic excellence as guiding principles.
Although the directive enormously increases federal control, its enforcement is ambiguous. Legal restrictions already restrict the gathering of race data at admissions points and allow students to decline demographic data during enrollment. In response, schools have discovered alternative considerations for admissions, like socioeconomic status or geographical diversity, in order to keep student populations diverse regardless of the legislation.
