Data Brings Sunshine: Research Publics Not Spending Money on Classroom Instruction

Even more interesting than the latest findings are some implications for the future:

The greatest value of the Delta Project’s report may yet to be realized. Leaders of the project, which is funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education, plan to create a Web-based function that will allow users to look at the spending and revenue data of individual institutions. While the raw data is already public through the federal data clearinghouse for higher education, known as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the Delta Project hopes to create a function that adds context and meaning to the often dizzying IPEDS numbers.

Charles Miller, who chaired the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, said he welcomes the greater sunshine that the Delta Project is bringing to postsecondary education.

“Unless you have data that’s in this kind of form, it’s very hard to make decisions and policy judgments that are objective,” he said.

After reviewing the report, Miller said the Delta Project had made a data-driven case for reform, without having to use the sometimes tough language that’s found in many such reports, including the one Miller’s own commission presented.

“It doesn’t say ‘Here are the failings of the system,’ and a lot of the report is going to avoid doing that, but [Wellman] implies it,” he said.