Freshman enrollment didn’t decline this fall, as beforehand reported within the Nationwide Scholar Clearinghouse Analysis Heart’s annual enrollment report in October. On Monday, the NSC acknowledged {that a} methodological error led to a serious misrepresentation of first-year enrollment developments, and that first-year enrollment seems to have elevated.
The October report confirmed first-year enrollments fell by 5 p.c, in what would have been the most important decline because the COVID-19 pandemic—and appeared to verify fears that final 12 months’s bungled rollout of a brand new federal support type would curtail faculty entry. Inside Larger Ed reported on that knowledge throughout a number of articles, and it was featured prominently in main information shops like The New York Instances and The Washington Put up.
In keeping with the clearinghouse, the error was a methodological one, brought on by mislabeling many first-year college students as dual-enrolled highschool college students. This additionally led to artificially inflated numbers on twin enrollment; the October report stated the inhabitants of dually enrolled college students grew by 7.2 p.c.
“The Nationwide Scholar Clearinghouse Analysis Heart acknowledges the significance and significance of its position in offering correct and dependable analysis to the upper training group,” Doug Shapiro, the middle’s govt director, wrote in an announcement. “We deeply remorse this error and are conducting an intensive overview to know the basis trigger and implement measures to forestall such occurrences sooner or later.”
On Jan. 23, the clearinghouse will launch one other annual enrollment report primarily based on present time period estimates that use completely different analysis methodologies.
The Training Division had flagged a possible difficulty within the knowledge this fall when its monetary support knowledge confirmed a 5 p.c enhance in college students receiving federal support. In an announcement, Beneath Secretary James Kvaal stated the division was “inspired and relieved” by the clearinghouse’s correction.
