Moving Federal Postsecondary Education Data to the States
Moving postsecondary education data collection to the states is the best way to ensure that the U.S. Department of Education can meet its legislative mandates in an era of constrained federal resources. Students, families, policymakers, and businesses need this data to make decisions about investments in education, but cuts to the federal government make it difficult to collect. The Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics should use their authority to establish state cooperative groups to collect and submit data from the postsecondary institutions in each state to the federal government, like the way that K12 schools report to the U.S. Department of Education (ED). With funding from the State Longitudinal Data System grant program and quality measures like the Common Education Data Standards, this new data reporting model will give more power to states, improve trust in education data, and make it easier for everyone to use the data.
Challenge and Opportunity
The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), was hit hard by staffing and contract cuts at the U.S. Department of Education in early 2025. Without the staff to collect and clean the data, or the contractors to run the websites and reports, this is the first time in its decades-long history that IPEDS may not be available to the public next year. IPEDS is a vast data collection, including information on grants and scholarships, tuition prices, graduation rates, and staffing levels. This has serious implications for students and their families choosing colleges, as well as for policymakers who want to ensure that these colleges graduate students on time, for businesses who want to find trained workers, and for everyone who cares about educating tomorrow’s citizens . Not to mention that these data are required by law under the Higher Education Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, among others.
Moving IPEDS data collection to the states is the best way to ensure that the data continue to be collected and released. States already play a large role in collecting data on elementary and secondary education, a model that could work for postsecondary data like IPEDS.
Why do we collect K12 data through states but not postsecondary data? K12 systems are substantially different from postsecondary data due to federal legislation. No Child Left Behind catalyzed the expansion of K12 data infrastructure, requiring regular reporting on student test scores, disaggregated achievement data for student groups, and information about teacher qualifications. Though the accountability measures attached to these data were controversial, the reporting processes they catalyzed vastly surpassed those in the postsecondary data system, which was built piecemeal over decades.
In K12 data systems, local education agencies report data to state education agencies who report to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Reviews at each step in this process ensures that data are high quality and made available quickly for analysis. In postsecondary data, thousands of institutions individually report to NCES, which takes months to review and release the data for the whole country. Some institutions do report to a state coordinator, like Maryland which has one reporter for all public postsecondary institutions and one for all privates. The role of state coordinators varies widely across states. Using the state reporting model is an opportunity to further streamline this process.
Reporting postsecondary data at the state level has another benefit: it gives states control over future student-level data reporting. That is because states, in addition to fulfilling reporting requirements, also collect student-level data from K12 systems that can be linked to students’ postsecondary and workforce outcomes over time. These statewide longitudinal systems (SLDS) were supported through a federal grant program that began in 2006, and many of the measures collected are required for federal K12 reporting. Some SLDSs contain postsecondary measures like tuition and graduation rates, which are also collected by IPEDS. Though IPEDS does not require student-level data, advocates have been pushing for such data for several years. A student unit record system was proposed in the College Transparency Act. Moving IPEDS data collection to the states will help states develop the systems necessary to implement future student-level data collection in postsecondary education if this or similar legislation passes Congress.
Plan of Action
The NCES Commissioner should establish state-level groups to collect and submit IPEDS data. Instead of receiving thousands of individual reports from postsecondary institutions, NCES would receive 59, one from each state plus Washington D.C. and the territories that already report to IPEDS. For states that need support to manage this reporting process, ED could provide funding through an existing grant program. The IPEDS data definitions and reporting requirements would not change, but they could be improved through integration into other data standards.
This plan has several advantageous outcomes. First, IES would be able to meet its data collection and reporting requirements despite limited staff and funding. This increases efficiency and saves taxpayer dollars. Second, states would have access to their data more quickly, thus minimizing pressure on IES to release data on shorter timelines. This allows data users to work with more current information and give states the power to conduct their own analysis.
Step 1. The U.S. Department of Education can use its authority to establish state cooperatives to move IPEDS data collection to the states
Under 20 U.S.C. §9547, the NCES Commissioner has the authority to set up cooperatives to produce education statistics. These cooperatives could serve as the governing body and fiscal agent for collecting and submitting data from each state to the federal government. In states that already have a coordinator to submit IPEDS data, this cooperative group builds on existing processes for collecting, reviewing, and submitting data, including existing IPEDS state coordinators. The cooperatives should also involve state higher education executive officers, representatives from public, non-profit, and private postsecondary institutions, and experts in data systems and institutional research.
NCES should publish a charter that states can adopt as they organize their cooperatives. Multi-state education data groups, like the Multi-State Data Collaborative, have developed charters that could be used as a starting point. The sample charter should encourage the development of federated data systems, one model that has been successful in K12 data collection. Federated data systems, as opposed to centralized ones, operate on agreements to link and share data upon request, after which the linked data are destroyed. This model offers stronger protections for data privacy and can be established quickly.
Step 2. States should commit to financial support to support data submissions
States will also need financial support to develop or expand data storage systems, pay staff for quality reviews, and support data submissions. Some of this infrastructure already exists through funding from the IES SLDS grant program. Future grant awards could be used to fund the expansion of these systems to include IPEDS data collection and submission by setting priorities in the grant selection process.
In addition, NCES could contract with a technical assistance provider to support state infrastructure development. Something like the data academy offered by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) or the institutional research training offered by the Association for Institutional Research (AIR) would be useful to states that need personalized assistance.
Step 3. States should continue to use the data definitions and guidance developed by NCES
To ensure that the data retains the same high-quality standard of federal IPEDS collection, states should continue to use the data definitions and guidance developed by NCES. Further integrating these definitions with the Common Education Data System (CEDS), ensures that states understand and have access to these definitions. CEDS, the voluntary national standard for reporting K12 data, already includes some postsecondary data elements. Incorporating all IPEDS data definitions into CEDS will streamline data standards across K12 and postsecondary. CEDS also has recommendations for building out data infrastructure, like data stores (repositories for multiple databases and file types), helpful for states who need to expand theirs for this effort.
Conclusion
Moving IPEDS data collection to the states is the best way to ensure that NCES meets its legislative mandates in an era of constrained federal resources. This new collection method has other benefits as well. A more decentralized data collection will give more power to states to represent their unique institutions and contexts. By serving as stewards of this data, states will have better access to it, allowing for quicker reporting and analysis. With more access to and control over the data, trust and usage of the data will improve.
Unlike K12, there is more than one state-level education authority in many states. This will require more coordination among state higher education executive officers, state boards of higher education, and other state/regional actors such as accreditors. Private postsecondary institutions would also need to be at the table. The cooperative model provides a structure for bringing these entities together.
CTA includes a ban on using cooperatives to create a unit record data system, which may impact the use of this authority to create other collaborative systems. This ban is related to the larger debate over student unit record systems. Though IPEDS is not a unit record, it would still be helpful to review the language in CTA to ensure that the establishment of cooperatives would not be stymied by this provision in case CTA is passed.
IPEDS does not currently collect data at the student level. Because there is no individually identifiable data, privacy is not a greater concern under this proposal than it is under the current system for collecting data.
Moving postsecondary education data collection to the states is the best way to ensure that the U.S. Department of Education can meet its legislative mandates in an era of constrained federal resources.
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