AIR Statement on NCES Layoffs

AIR issued the following statement in response to the news of the widespread staffing reductions at the Department of Education, including the loss of staff at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES):  

“As a community of data professionals committed to the effective use of data and analytics for the benefit of students and higher education, AIR supports and emphasizes the critical role of NCES and its staff in collecting, analyzing, and reporting objective, high-quality national data.  

Without NCES and the data it oversees, we risk weakening the foundation of informed decision-making in higher education, leading to gaps in our understanding of student achievement and institutional performance. In particular, the legislatively mandated Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data provide comparable and trustworthy information on enrollment, costs, financial aid, and completion at over 7,000 postsecondary institutions. 

Students and families will lose their ability to compare and select colleges that best fit their situations and requirements. Institutional leaders, policy makers, and researchers will no longer have access to the data that lead to insights and actions necessary for educational improvement, accountability, and policy reform.  

We call on the administration and Congress to move quickly to reverse this short-sighted reduction in staff and ensure that accurate and continuous data remain available to support institutional improvement and student success.”  

About AIR 

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) represents a worldwide community of institutional research, institutional effectiveness, and other decision-support professionals. AIR empowers higher education professionals to effectively and ethically use data for better decisions through education and professional development, research, and collective action. For more information, visit www.airweb.org.