Newly redesigned Carnegie Classifications released today intend to better reflect how higher education is changing and to make them more useful to stakeholders.
Two main classification updates were announced Thursday by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education (ACE). The first is a redesign of the Institutional Classification — previously called the Basic Classification — that groups higher education institutions based on several factors, including a broader look at the types of degrees awarded, subjects in which they are awarded and the size of the institutions. The update includes 31 Institutional Classifications.
The second is a new Student Access and Earnings Classification that examines how institutions serve students from the communities they serve and the earned wages of former students.
“The majority of students apply to college with the hope it is a path to opportunity, and the job they’ve dreamt about,” Carnegie Foundation President Timothy F.C. Knowles said in a release. “This work is about ensuring that institutions are recognized when they empower students to reach their goals and succeed.”
Deeper dive
The Institutional Classification better reflects and organizes the wide variety of institutional missions and organizational structures, according to a fact sheet from the Carnegie Foundation and ACE. The former Basic Classification focused on the highest degree an institution awards, even if it was a small portion of overall degrees.
Under the revamped classification, institutions are grouped mainly by the degrees they award the most. Among the six categories are associate and associate/baccalaureate, the latter of which includes institutions that primarily award associate degrees but also award bachelor’s and or graduate degrees.
“These multidimensional groupings of peer institutions are designed to make the Institutional Classification more relevant and useful for policymakers, funders, researchers and others who rely on the classification system for a comprehensive view of higher education in the United States,” according to a release.
Access and earnings
According to the Carnegie Foundation and ACE, the new Student Access and Earnings Classification “aims to spur collaboration and institutional improvement with a focus on how higher education can foster opportunities for success.”
The access measure is determined via undergraduate students who receive Pell grants and undergraduates from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups, according to the fact sheet. Both are compared to the demographics for the areas that institutions serve.
The earnings measure is based on the earnings of former Title IV undergraduate students eight years after they enter the institution and compares the median value to earnings of a similar population in students’ home locations.
The data used for the measures come from the U.S. Education Department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System and College Scorecard and the U.S. Census Bureau.
Institutions are placed one of six categories based on their rating of the two measures, from higher access/higher earnings, to lower access/lower earnings. More than 470 institutions have the top higher access/higher earnings rating and are designated as Opportunity Colleges and Universities to serve as models for student success.
In total, the classifications include 3,928 higher education institutions, according to the data file. It also notes that about 900 institutions are unable to be classified in the Student Access and Earnings Classification for various reasons, including insufficient data for students at that institution or insufficient data for the majority of institutions in the Institutional Classification.
