Hillsdale remains absent from Scorecard: 700 other schools added

Home News Hillsdale remains absent from Scorecard: 700 other schools added
Hillsdale remains absent from Scorecard: 700 other schools added

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The U.S. Department of Education added more than 700 institutions to the College Scorecard database in January, according to a department spokesperson — but Hillsdale College remains excluded.
Last September, President Barack Obama described the database, created to compare colleges and universities across the nation, as “comprehensive.” According to the department spokesperson, the updated Scorecard includes all degree-granting institutions listed in the department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System database.
A further update to add more institutions is in the works, but neither Provost David Whalen, nor College President Larry Arnn are aware of any contact between the college and the Department of Education regarding adding Hillsdale to the Scorecard.
“We’re working with the higher education community to make sure that schools that weren’t included in the first round of the Scorecard have the opportunity to be in the Scorecard,” said Acting Secretary of Education John B. King Jr. in a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce Feb. 24.
Hillsdale’s Congressman Tim Walberg questioned King on Hillsdale’s conspicuous absence from the Scorecard. Walberg described the incompleteness of the database as “misleading.”
“I’m not sure that the federal government should be involved in putting out something like that,” Walberg said at the hearing. “As you say it is not a rating system, but it becomes a rating system. It’s impossible not to be a rating system when that type of information is included. And it’s not complete — it’s incomplete.”
King countered by saying he and the department believe that the Scorecard provides information that “is important and can inform decisions.”
“It’s important to know the Scorecard is not a rating system,” King said at the hearing. “We don’t have rankings of the schools. It’s information — it’s a transparent system of information about the schools.”
As the Collegian reported last September, there is no disclaimer on the College Scorecard website that any schools are missing from the database. More than 1.4 million unique users have visited the Scorecard since its September launch, according to the department spokesperson.
The Education Department already has almost all of the information necessary to include Hillsdale in the Scorecard.
Scorecard data is sourced from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System database — a system which draws from data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics, another division of the Education Department.
Data submitted by Hillsdale — such as tuition and fees, geographical location, academic programs, financial aid, and accreditation information — is accessible in the NCES database, according to NCES employee Aurora D’Amico.
To be included in IPEDS — and by extension, in the Scorecard — a school must submit racial demographic information of its student body — information which Hillsdale has never collected for ethical reasons and, therefore, cannot submit.
Many schools are included in the Scorecard with data sets marked “not available,” but so far, the department has made no effort to add Hillsdale to the database without racial demographic information.
“I don’t think that’s accurate to portray Hillsdale College — simply because it’s not included in the Scorecard — as probably not worthy of people going to the school, do you?” Walberg asked at the hearing.