Arriving at a sense of patriotism under a sanitized version of history is like falling in love with someone without ever getting past the first date "put your best foot forward" stage www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

NCES released IPEDS data on institutional characteristics, 12-month enrollment, and completions for the 2023-24 academic year. It's 2-8 weeks later than the typical year. Also, it looks like revised data for these variables for the prior year are available, but not indicated like usual.

Missed Student Loan Payments Are Messing Up Credit Scores A new report finds scores dropped the most for those 18 to 29. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/19/y...

Can't imagine why an administration that cut food stamps would want to stop collecting data on food insecurity

These seem like winnable lawsuits if the students want to pursue them

Sounds like decisions on FY26 funding for continuing IES grants are (finally) going out

Maryland announced today $14.4 million to replicate ASAP--a comprehensive student support program that was shown to significantly increase graduation rates in an RCT led by MDRC--at four community colleges in the state governor.maryland.gov/news/press/p...

My research team has a new EFP article diving into the ways that localities fund community colleges. It's fascinating to look at variation within and across states. Journal version: direct.mit.edu/edfp/article... Working version: static1.squarespace.com/static/5d9f9...

80% of all adults agree state and federal governments should provide adequate funding to colleges for student support services

A thing that probably shouldn't happen in a healthy democracy: my wife and I have agreed I will no longer take my children to political events because of the risk of violence

This paper estimates government losses on income-driven repayment plans are fully offset by increased tax revenue as a result of such plans boosting educational attainment www.nber.org/system/files...

FWIW the worst experience I ever had with a biased professor was an econ professor at UT Tyler who, for example, made the class read a book by Mark Levin

New brief from my colleague Alyssa Ratledge on how higher education researchers can increase the representation of rural colleges in randomized controlled trials www.mdrc.org/work/publica...

The political differences in "using your talents and resources to help others" is also striking.

I appreciate AEFP making the case for the benefits of education policy research in the current moment of federal retrenchment

If Republicans think viewpoint diversity on college campuses is important, one solution they could try is adopting policies that appeal to college students

New report! MDRC drew on two decades of RCTs on higher ed student success programs to design a low-cost model aimed at delivering strong bang for the buck It didn't work* A testament to having some humility about what makes student success programs work www.mdrc.org/work/publica...

Today in @aeraedresearch.bsky.social comms, coverage of a new study by an amazing scholar (& good friend) @bbassett2.bsky.social about spatial injustice & universities that support low-income students! Open access article: www.doi.org/10.1177/2332... Video summary: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftyy...

This is not how science works

I put all my hot takes and strong feelings about Trump’s assault on higher education into one convenient essay. Check it out! washingtonmonthly.com/2025/08/24/h...

I would argue the failure to follow through on the promise of Trade Adjustment Assistance is one of the most underappreciated political decisions of the last 40 years--one that has influenced our current politics to a large degree

As the parent of two young children, this is how I feel about the weekend versus work week

Appreciate this reality check about the "typical" college student in the New York Times www.nytimes.com/2025/08/25/u...

Can't wait for the US to get free/subsidized childcare in like 2030, just as both of my kids are entering elementary school after I've already spent $200k on their childcare

I wonder if the administration would have reached this same conclusion if college students tended to vote Republican

This is an unusually harsh back and forth to a new survey about the growing challenges that financial aid administrators report in working with the Department of Education. It's reaching its apex now as more colleges begin classes...will aid get out on time? www.insidehighered.com/news/governm...

The American people support federal funding for scientific research

ED says they expect to save $1.5 billion as a result of the proposed changes We can infer from that number that they expect to deny forgiveness for approximately 20,000 borrowers who otherwise would have received it

The administration says it wants to prevent PSLF from going to employees of orgs engaged in "illegal" activity But we already have a legal system to address that So the only purpose here is to let the admin interpret legality as it sees fit, using a lower "preponderance of the evidence" standard

This would be devastating. I literally bought the house I did because it's along the Keystone Service line, enabling me to get to NYC in 2.5 hours on a single train.

I posted a fully remote faculty position last spring and got more than 300 applications. So many great people in my line of work have lost their jobs, and there are probably more job losses to come.

And things could get worse in a couple weeks if IES does not issue FY26 funds for ongoing grants...

“It’s not like I’m losing my job,” Wolf said. “It’s like I’m losing my field, my entire career pathway.”

I can now say my hatred of sporting events ending after midnight on the east coast is data-driven

Overheard at my coworking space: a guy who "had to" stop being friends with another guy because the other guy stopped following sports so they had nothing to talk about

Students are being scammed by fake university websites built by generative AI A fully-staffed Department of Education likely would have shut this down sooner and saved victims money www.insidehighered.com/news/tech-in...

Federal research funding has historically been viewed as an indicator of quality research Will that continue once federal funding is subjected to a politicized process?

The Utah System of Higher Education has now approved the plans for all eight public institutions to reallocate resources to in-demand programs and earn back 10% of their state funding Those plans will now go to the legislature for review www.ksl.com/article/5135...

You are going to see fewer and fewer serious research organizations pursuing federal research funding and more and more grifters who are willing to bend the data toward predetermined ideological outcomes

Struggling to keep track of all the lawsuits concerning higher ed, DEI, research grants and Trump? We were too. That's why @insidehighered.com put together a legal tracker to follow 40+ cases step by step—so you don't have to. Check out the database and read our analysis below:

For anyone keeping up with this: D-Day for learning about the future of IES grants has been pushed from the end of June to the end of August Depending on how things go, September could be another painful month for policy research organizations

Appreciate Tom Brock from the Community College Research Center speaking out about how the organization has been affected by federal funding cuts ccrc.tc.columbia.edu/easyblog/let...

One more effort to politicize federal grantmaking. *Grants must by approved by a political appointee, working with OMB. *"Discretionary awards must, where applicable, demonstrably advance the President’s policy priorities." *Cannot "promote anti-American values" www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

It is becoming extremely challenging for serious researchers to partner with the federal government

The handful of people left at NCES are going to have to work 100+ hours per week

I have a new brief out with @justinortagus.bsky.social about the prospect of using OBF to increase college completion rates Honestly, it doesn't say much that will be new for audiences familiar with the topic, but here's one hot take that did not get cut from the brief www.mdrc.org/work/publica...

Data revisions are a normal, necessary part of trying to measure a $30 trillion economy in real time. They can also be jarring, especially for people who don't obsessively scrutinize every jobs report. So I dug into the how and why of revisions. A few big takeaways: #EconSky

My seven-month-old started daycare today, and it's hard to overstate how big of a difference there is between WFH in an empty house and WFH in a house with a baby + another adult