Research clearly outlining solutions to low graduation rates of low-income students already exists but politics proves to be barrier to closing the graduation gap. Nonprofit, nonpartisan, public policy institute A New America has produced a research project titled College Blackout on the topic. 

According to College Blackout's website, a need for better data about graduation rates for college institutions was already an issue of national debate more than a decade ago, when President George W. Bush was in his first term.

“In the early 2000s the Bush administration identified a federally-administered Student Unit Record system, as a solution to onerous reporting burdens, and the need for better information about graduation rates and college value”.

However, an issue of college institutional accountability has translated into an issue of political power on Capitol Hill. As published by The Hechinger Report in 2006, one of the most powerful higher education lobbyist groups, the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), swiftly struck down the college data solution proposed by the Bush Administration.

The College Blackout research project also describes how “the NAICU represents some of the country’s wealthiest and most politically powerful institutions even though private colleges compromise of less than 15 percent of undergraduate colleges.”

The lobbyist group instead proposed implementing a ban on collecting college graduation rates of all students nationwide.

Although the NAICU cited privacy concerns as their main reason for collecting data on graduation rates for all students, many college institutions already give statistical data on college attendees to outside organizations.

A more plausible incentive that would entice members of Congress to support NAICU is better observed when looking at a quote from president David Warren.

In 2014, at the annual meeting of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, Warren stated to attendees, “Tell your story to your member of Congress, why this is an ill-conceived notion.” He went on to stating, “No congressman wants an ugly rating for an institution in his district.” Congressmen were urged to support NAICU initiatives to prevent poor ratings of colleges in their respective districts.

Private colleges also have an incentive not to report low-income graduation rates. According to a Pell Institute Fact Sheet from 2011, “Just 11 percent of low-income students who are the first in their family to attend college will have a college degree within six years of enrolling in school.”

By not reporting potentially low numbers, college institutions are not required to be held accountable for low graduation rates.

The battle between members of Congress who supported Bush’s initiative and lobbyists who wanted to implement the ban took five years. In the end, the NAICU won, and approved a ban on collecting data on students called the Higher Education Act.

More recently, in 2010 the NAICU launched Building Blocks 2020, an initiative that supported President Obama’s vision to make United States rank first in the world for college completion by 2020.

Ironically enough, the NAICU pledges the following on their website:

“All private colleges will be encouraged to participate in the national effort by self- identifying goals or sets of goals appropriate to their missions. Along the way, each college that participates will be asked to report on its success in meeting its goals, including:

(1) Producing more college graduates;

(2) Increasing graduation or retention rates;

(3) Increasing success with at-risk students, or

(4) Increasing graduates in areas of national need.”

The Building Blocks 2020 project has hallmarks of a program that actually accounts for all students—without any of the statistical data. It asks for programs and initiatives that strive to increase graduation rates instead of the numbers of students who graduate within these programs.

Since the Higher Education Ban, other bills have attempted to allow exemptions to the ban or strike the ban altogether. The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of 2012, The Student Right to Know Before You Go Act of 2013, and the Higher Education Affordability Act of 2014 all were introduced to Congress but failed to be enacted.

The Higher Education Ban has created a barrier for researchers and organizations attempting to collect information on low-income students. Read more about it here.