The Case for IES: How Federal Education Data Informs Federal Policy

Lawmakers are best equipped to find solutions that benefit all students when they are armed with high-quality data. For decades, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education has conducted studies, such as the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), that provide key evidence to inform policymaking in higher education. However, recent contract cancellations threaten this vital infrastructure, stalling progress and cutting off access to timely data policymakers and researchers need to understand how students are faring. 

As a large, nationally representative study, NPSAS provides crucial insights about student enrollment, degree completion, affordability, and on-campus experiences that are not available through any other sources. It combines valuable student interview data with administrative data, including FAFSA data that’s only available from the federal government.  

Here are three examples of how NPSAS data provide unique and important insights about federal policy and spurred changes to increase student access to financial aid. 

1) Simplifying the FAFSA

A 2006 National Bureau of Economic Research working paper used NPSAS data to analyze how the complexity of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) impacts college access. Their research found that the complexity of the FAFSA form most negatively impacted students with the fewest financial resources. Using student-level data from NPSAS, including specific elements from the FAFSA, they determined that the FAFSA could be substantially shortened without having much impact on financial aid distribution.  

Then-Senator Lamar Alexander cited this research in his push to simplify the FAFSA, a goal that was ultimately achieved with the passage of the FAFSA Simplification Act in 2020. That legislation eliminated dozens of questions from the FAFSA and provided a simpler measure to determine whether students will receive the maximum or minimum Pell Grant. Without NPSAS, insights about the costs of FAFSA complexity may never have reached lawmakers, and the resulting reforms may never have passed. 

2) Revealing Gaps in Student Access to Basic Needs Supports

NPSAS is the only nationally representative dataset that measures food and housing insecurity among college students, alongside their receipt of public benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This makes NPSAS uniquely valuable in identifying where gaps in support remain for students struggling to cover basic needs like food and housing.   

In a 2024 report the Government Accountability Office (GAO) used NPSAS data to estimate the share of undergraduate students who were food insecure and the share who were potentially eligible for SNAP benefits. Eligibility was assessed using detailed student-level data in NPSAS, including household income, number of hours worked per week, and the age of students’ children. The results were stark: nearly 60 percent of food-insecure students who met the criteria to be eligible for SNAP did not report receiving benefits.  

NPSAS data made it possible for GAO to produce its analysis without the need for additional data collection, saving taxpayer dollars while delivering actionable insights to inform federal policy. These findings, cited in GAO’s follow-up report, have direct implications for outreach and program implementation to reduce food insecurity and help students stay enrolled and complete their degrees. 

3) Supporting Student Parents

By including detailed student interviews and administrative data, NPSAS allows researchers and policymakers to examine the college experiences of student parents, veterans, and first-generation students—populations that are often not captured in other data sources. 

For example, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the nonpartisan research arm of Congress, relied on NPSAS data for its 2024 brief on Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) grants. Those grants are intended to “support the participation of low-income parents in postsecondary education through the provision of campus-based child care services.” To understand the target population for the CCAMPIS program, CRS used NPSAS data to estimate the share of college students who were parents, the share of student parents who received Pell Grants, and the monthly dependent care costs faced by student parents. Without NPSAS’ nationally representative data on students’ parenting status, policymakers would be left without a clear picture of how many college students are caring for children while facing financial need. 

What’s at Stake 

When federal contracts are cancelled, we don’t just pause research. We lose the chance to learn from it. Vital surveys like NPSAS and BPS should not be cut in the name of efficiency. Rather, they give policymakers the data needed to effectively design and implement federal programs and ensure that aid is available for students who need it most. To ensure data-driven, student-centered policymaking continues, IES’s postsecondary studies and resources must be protected.  

Read more of IHEP’s “The Case for IES Postsecondary Studies and Resources” series.