New Report Highlights Importance of Student Parent Data Collection
Student parents face unique challenges to college completion. Given that they represent nearly a quarter of U.S. college students, it is essential to gather information about their lives, needs, and academic progress in order to develop supports and services that help them graduate.
Our briefing paper discusses why data on student parents are critical to increasing equity in college outcomes, and reviews existing and potential new data sources on undergraduate college students with children. It also provides recommendations for improving data collection efforts around parent status, including examples of how these data can be collected by institutions of higher education.
Report author and IWPR Study Director Lindsey Reichlin-Cruse detailed the importance of data collection in a conversation with Diverse Issues in Higher Education on Head Start-college partnerships. The article noted "analyzing data on student parents’ needs, financial status and other barriers to completion they may be facing, such as housing and food insecurity" is critical to developing institutional supports for student parents in higher education.
