How to Measure What Matters: A Practical Guide to Assessing Postsecondary Value
Published Sep 2026
How to Measure What Matters: A Practical Guide to Assessing Postsecondary Value provides a step-by-step approach for anyone interested in using data to evaluate postsecondary value within a state, institution, or community. Based on the Postsecondary Value Commission’s Postsecondary Value Framework, the guide equips researchers, policymakers, and practitioners with an overview of the necessary data elements, analytic considerations and tradeoffs, and potential metrics and comparisons to conduct value research.
How can you measure postsecondary value?
The guide details six steps for conducting postsecondary value analysis:
1) Determine a research focus. Review current priorities and gather information, then decide which value metrics, which students, and which subgroups to include in your analysis.
2) Identify data and secure access. Gather enrollment and completion records, post-college earnings, and student cost and financial-aid data. Close gaps through data-sharing agreements or publicly available sources.
3) Define an earnings cohort. Set the cohort’s characteristics, time frame, and exclusions, then map the cohort and build an analytic file.
4) Calculate economic value thresholds. Download and clean American Community Survey data, then calculate the relevant Postsecondary Value Framework thresholds (T0–T3).
5) Compare student earnings to thresholds. Evaluate students’ post-college earnings against each selected threshold.
6) Interpret data and share findings. Create data visualizations, identify key findings, and discuss your results with key decision-makers to inform policy and practice.
Our guide is designed to help practitioners apply the Postsecondary Value Framework to their own research and use their findings to inform policy and practice.
Read the executive summary or full guide to learn more about measuring postsecondary value.
Want to learn more? An IHEP expert can walk your institution, organization, or network through the guide and help you apply it to your own value research. Reach out to us at communications@ihep.org.