Making College Worth It: How Data Can Transform Higher Education
By Laura Jimenez and Michael Itzkowitz
June 3, 2025
At the HEA Group, we believe in using data to drive real change in higher education. For years, we've studied what happens to college students after they enter school—tracking their completion rates, careers, earnings, and overall success. Our research has revealed crucial insights about which college programs truly pay off for students and which ones fall short.
This work has caught the attention of policymakers nationwide. States are now using these insights to make smarter decisions about which college programs to fund, support, and scale—a significant shift toward prioritizing real-world value in higher education.
From Identifying Problems to Creating Solutions
While we can spot what works and what doesn’t in higher education, identifying high and low performers simply isn't enough. To truly ensure students’ education pays off long-term, colleges need support to turn these insights into concrete improvements.
The key question is: How do we help college leaders act on what the data show? That’s where technical assistance comes in.
Technical Assistance: Turning Data into Action
Technical assistance provides colleges with timely and practical support to use data effectively. It helps educational leaders strengthen their programs and improve outcomes, especially for learners from low- and moderate-income families who stand to benefit the most.
Three Ways Technical Assistance Creates Better Results
1. Program Performance Analysis: Colleges can use data from the U.S. Department of Education and state employment agencies to see which programs actually help students earn competitive wages after graduation—and understand which groups of students benefit most from different programs.
2. Labor Market Alignment: Using information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and local employers, colleges can ensure their programs prepare students for jobs that actually exist in their communities.
3. Skills-to-Jobs Connection: Colleges can map what students learn in their programs to specific job opportunities nearby, making sure graduates have the right skills to succeed in available positions.
Program Performance Analysis: Tracking Success by Program and Student Group
Colleges can’t improve what they don’t understand. The good news is that the HEA Group has already analyzed earnings outcomes for more than 36,000 college programs across the United States, giving schools a solid starting point. And data from many state employment agencies can provide the same.
An employment dashboard gives administrators a clear view of how different programs and student groups are performing. By looking at actual earnings data, administrators can identify which programs deliver strong returns and which need attention. This data-driven approach yields better decisions that improve outcomes for all students.
Real-World Example: Miami-Dade College
Looking at Miami-Dade College's program outcomes, we can see clear patterns. Graduates from Fire Protection, Nursing, and Allied Health Diagnostic, Intervention, and Treatment certificate programs are earning strong wages. However, graduates from Human Development/Family Studies and Business Administration certificates are earning significantly less than their peers.
These data help administrators ask important questions:
Is the academic department providing quality instruction?
Are these programs teaching the right skills for today's job market?
Is the career services office effectively connecting these students with employers?
Are there enough job opportunities in the Miami-Dade area that align with these certificates?
The dashboard helps administrators know where to dig deeper and how to focus improvement efforts more strategically.
Labor Market Alignment: Matching Programs to Available Jobs
For college to be worth the investment, graduates need to find good jobs that justify their time and money spent on their postsecondary education. Yet, too often, colleges offer programs even when there aren't enough of those jobs in local markets.
For example, national data on certificates and associate’s degrees reveal a troubling disconnect between what colleges teach and what jobs are available. Here are the key findings:
28% of all middle-skills credentials have no clear job match in the marketplace
Sales and office support jobs make up 27% of available middle-skills positions, but only 4% of credentials are awarded in this area
Blue-collar trades represent 23% of opportunities, but only 12% of credentials
Colleges can use similar analysis—comparing local job openings from the Bureau of Labor Statistics with their own programs—to spot these mismatches. With this information, they can make smarter decisions about which programs to expand, reduce, or modify.
For example, if data show high demand for certain jobs but few graduates prepared for them, a college might expand those programs. Conversely, if it’s graduating too many students for fields with limited opportunities, it might redirect resources to prevent underemployment and improve student outcomes.
Skills-to-Jobs Connection: Connecting Student Skills to Employer Needs
When students graduate with skills that don't match what employers want, they face fewer job opportunities, lower wages, and difficulty building meaningful careers. Understanding whether a college program teaches the right skills—and whether those skills translate to employer needs—is crucial for ensuring education leads to career success.
Example: Business Administration Skills Analysis
A skills alignment tool can transform how colleges make decisions. Instead of guessing what students need, colleges can use data to identify and fill specific skills gaps.
In the Business Administration example shown above, there are significant gaps (40-60 points) in high-demand areas like data analytics and digital marketing. By addressing these gaps systematically between the programs offered and those needed by the key employment partners in the area, colleges can:
For Students: Provide relevant, in-demand skills that lead to better job prospects
For Colleges: Improve job placement rates, increase graduate earnings, and build stronger employer partnerships
For Everyone: Create measurable accountability and demonstrate real return on investment
Most importantly, this approach ensures students get a postsecondary education that directly translates into career success and economic opportunity, which is the main reason students pursue a postsecondary education in the first place.
The Path Forward
To ensure that they remain responsive and competitive, colleges must embrace data-driven decision making. Technical assistance provides the bridge between having good data and taking effective action. The tools and insights exist. The question now is which institutions will embrace this approach and lead an effective transformation of higher education toward greater accountability, relevance, and student success.
By focusing on three key areas—program performance analysis, job market alignment, and skills-to-employer matching—colleges can continuously improve and truly prepare students for economic success.
The HEA Group is a research and consulting agency focused on college access, value, and economic mobility. For more information, please contact us here.
