Freshman enrollment up this fall; information error led to miscount

Freshman enrollment didn’t decline this fall, as beforehand reported within the Nationwide Pupil Clearinghouse Analysis Heart’s annual enrollment report in October. On Monday, the NSC acknowledged {that a} methodological error led to a significant misrepresentation of first-year enrollment traits, 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 biggest decline for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic—and appeared to substantiate fears that final 12 months’s bungled rollout of a brand new federal assist type would curtail school entry. Inside Greater Ed reported on that information throughout a number of articles, and it was featured prominently in main information retailers like The New York Instances and The Washington Submit.

In accordance with the clearinghouse, the error was a methodological one, attributable to 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 mentioned the inhabitants of dually enrolled college students grew by 7.2 p.c.

“The Nationwide Pupil Clearinghouse Analysis Heart acknowledges the significance and significance of its function in offering correct and dependable analysis to the upper schooling group,” Doug Shapiro, the middle’s govt director, wrote in an announcement. “We deeply remorse this error and are conducting an intensive evaluate to know the foundation 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 totally different analysis methodologies.

The Training Division had flagged a possible difficulty within the information this fall when its monetary assist information confirmed a 5 p.c improve in college students receiving federal assist. In an announcement, Underneath Secretary James Kvaal mentioned the division was “inspired and relieved” by the clearinghouse’s correction.