Opportunity Colleges: Measuring What Truly Matters

Forbes

24-04-2025

The redesigned Carnegie Classifications aim to shift the focus from inputs to outcomes, from ... More prestige to performance and from exclusivity to opportunity.
At my house, we are deep in the college search process. A bewildering array of glossy brochures arrive in our mailbox each week. My son, a high school junior, repeatedly shares rankings of colleges that he's found online or sourced through internet influencers. We receive weekly 'college counseling' updates from our high school layered with deadlines, details about local college fairs, invitations to webinars about saving for college, and articles highlighting trends in college-going.
Even this higher education policy wonk and university trustee mom is left asking: 'Which college will actually give my son a good shot at success?'
It is a question that swirls around kitchen table conversations across America. As college costs continue to climb and student debt makes headlines, families are right to ask whether their investment will pay off. Will this college open doors for my child? Will my student, upon graduation, find a good job? Will they be welcomed and supported if they come from a family without financial means?
These practical questions matter far more to the majority of American families than the prestige factors that have traditionally dominated college rankings. There has been no systematic way to identify institutions that excel at both providing access to diverse student populations and delivering strong economic outcomes for their graduates.
Until now.
In a significant shift for how we understand and evaluate America's diverse higher education landscape, the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Carnegie Foundation) have unveiled a redesigned classification system that promises to better reflect what truly matters in higher education today: student success.
This latest announcement represents the culmination of years of work to reimagine the Carnegie Classifications, a process I highlighted in my January 2024 Forbes article, Rethinking Higher Education Classifications for Today's Institutions. As I noted then, the effort aimed to create "a more dynamic and contemporary perspective" on how we categorize and understand America's colleges and universities.
The timing couldn't be more critical. As Timothy Knowles, president of the Carnegie Foundation, recently characterized it at the ASU+GSV Summit, higher education finds itself in a "Dickensian moment"—the best of times and the worst of times. "Without question, [we have]
Yet at the same time, the nation's higher education system faces troubling trends: soaring student debt, insufficient access for low-income students, 60% completion rates, declining public confidence, an overemphasis on inputs not outcomes, enrollment challenges, and shrinking funding.
Ted Mitchell, president of ACE, put it bluntly in response to Knowles at the Summit: "It's no secret that higher education is facing an existential crisis," one with profound federal and political implications.
For nearly five decades, the Carnegie Classifications—long considered the gold standard for categorizing U.S. colleges and universities—have shaped how we view higher education. But as institutions have evolved to serve increasingly diverse student populations, the traditional classification system struggled to capture this complexity, often reducing institutions to simplistic categories based primarily on the highest degrees they awarded.
The 2025 update to the venerable Carnegie Classifications includes both a revision of the historic Basic Classification (now titled the Institutional Classification) and a groundbreaking new Student Access and Earnings Classification (SAEC).
The updated Institutional Classification now organizes colleges and universities according to multiple characteristics—including size, types of degrees awarded and fields of study in which students receive their degrees—creating a more nuanced view of institutional identity and mission.
But perhaps the most consequential change is the introduction of the SAEC, which focuses squarely on outcomes. This new framework evaluates institutions on two critical metrics: access and earnings.
The access metric examines whether peer institutions enroll students who reflect the communities they serve, specifically looking at Pell Grant recipients and underrepresented student groups. The earnings metric measures how much former students earn compared to their peers in the job markets they entered. Importantly, the metric tracks both students who complete their degrees and those who do not, so institutions are accountable for all students, not just those who graduate.
These 479 Opportunity Colleges and Universities represent a diverse cross-section of American higher ... More education—public and private, large and small, urban and rural—demonstrating that excellence in providing access and fostering economic mobility is possible across institutional types and settings.
This approach directly addresses two of the most pressing concerns in today's higher education debate: is college accessible to all Americans regardless of background? And does a college degree still deliver meaningful economic mobility? At a time when many Americans are questioning whether higher education remains a pathway to the middle class, these metrics provide concrete data to evaluate institutions' performance on these critical dimensions.
"The majority of students apply to college with the expectation it is a legitimate path to opportunity, and a job they've dreamt about," says Knowles. "This work is about ensuring that institutions are recognized and incentivized to empower students to reach their goals and succeed."
In a notable innovation, the new classification has designated 479 institutions as "Opportunity Colleges and Universities"— schools that meet specific thresholds on both access and earnings metrics and can serve as models for studying how all campuses can foster student success.
For baccalaureate-plus institutions to earn this designation, they must achieve at least a score of "1" for access (meaning their student population reflects the demographic makeup of their service area) and a score of "1.50" for earnings (indicating that their graduates earn 50% more than comparison groups eight years after enrollment).
Associate degree-granting institutions face a modified threshold, requiring the same access score but a slightly lower earnings score of "1.25," acknowledging the different nature and missions of these largely two-year degree-granting institutions.
These 479 Opportunity Colleges and Universities represent a diverse cross-section of American higher education—public and private, large and small, urban and rural—demonstrating that excellence in providing access and fostering economic mobility is possible across institutional types and settings. They serve as proof points that colleges and universities can simultaneously serve all students and prepare them for economic success.
The new SAEC has designated 479 institutions as "Opportunity Colleges and Universities"— schools ... More that meet specific thresholds on both access and earnings metrics and can serve as models for studying how all campuses can foster student success.
'We want this to be seen as holding higher education and our institutions accountable,' says Mitchell. 'Are they constructing a campus that reflects the community around them and are they providing those students with the essential tools and skills needed to go out into the world and succeed in a chosen career? It is time for a new social contract between higher education and the American people, and that contract has a 'job one' focusing on student success.'
The redesign arrives at a pivotal moment when families face difficult decisions about college affordability, legislators scrutinize public funding for higher education, employers question the job-readiness of graduates and institutions grapple with enrollment challenges and public perception issues. By focusing on tangible outcomes, the new classifications offer a more relevant lens through which to view institutional quality—one that aligns with what students and taxpayers actually want from higher education.
The redesigned system aims to shift the focus from inputs to outcomes, from prestige to performance and from exclusivity to opportunity. This new classification also has the potential to drive institutional improvement, facilitate learning from successful models, build upon existing research and equip various stakeholders—from state agencies to accreditors to funders—with better tools for decision-making. Most importantly, for students and families navigating the complex landscape of college choice, the new SAEC provides a valuable lens that aligns with what most are seeking: institutions that will open doors and create pathways to success.
'The institutions that are high access and high earnings—the Opportunity Colleges and Universities—warrant recognition, understanding and investment,' says Knowles. 'For if we create more places like them, and ensure the postsecondary sector is accountable for student success, we create more opportunity for everyone. And that, I think, is something Americans will rally behind.'
What makes this approach distinctive is its simplicity and focus. Rather than creating another complex ranking system, the SAEC is designed to be straightforward for institutions to understand what to improve and where to focus their efforts. By including associate degree-granting institutions and incorporating geographic context, the classification provides a more comprehensive and nuanced view of higher education's role in fostering opportunity.
The transformation of the Carnegie Classifications didn't happen overnight. When ACE and the Carnegie Foundation announced their partnership to reimagine the classifications in 2022, they embarked on an extensive process of stakeholder engagement, consulting with thousands of institutional leaders, researchers, policymakers and higher education experts. This inclusive approach ensured that the new classifications reflect the diverse perspectives and needs of the sector.
Perhaps most significantly, this reimagination moves beyond the theoretical to provide practical tools for institutional improvement in areas that are increasingly central to public policy debates: greater access, economic mobility and workforce development. As state legislatures tie funding to performance metrics, as Congress contemplates reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and as employers seek graduates with demonstrable skills, the new classifications provide a common framework for evaluating how well institutions are meeting these contemporary challenges.
'Higher education is facing numerous and serious challenges, some of our own making that have been building for years, such as too low completion rates, a too high barrier for granting credit and easing the time to degree for transfer students and those with prior learning experiences, and providing a clear picture of exactly what a college degree will cost,' says Mitchell. 'Now we are facing an existential threat from many of the actions being taken by the current administration, including the attempted gutting of our world-leading research. With the new Institutional and Student Access and Earnings Classifications, we are playing offense and demonstrating the evidence of what so many higher education institutions do well and challenging others to do better.'
But the collaboration between ACE and the Carnegie Foundation aims higher than just measuring current performance.
Knowles envisions the initiative as a catalyst for genuine innovation in higher education, one that might even "crack the Carnegie unit"—the time-based standard that has defined American education for over a century. By shifting focus to actual learning outcomes rather than seat time, the new classifications could spur new models, emerging from incumbent and new institutions that increase access, outcomes, and make postsecondary much more affordable, including options like three-year degrees and stronger pathways from high school to college.
As higher education continues to evolve in response to changing student needs, workforce demands and technological disruptions, having classification systems that reflect these realities becomes increasingly important.
For those families sitting around kitchen tables, weighing college options and worrying about cost, the Opportunity Colleges designation offers practical insights into college value. Now, students and families can look to these 479 institutions as examples of colleges and universities that have proven their ability to serve students of all backgrounds and prepare them for prosperity.
At a time when so many are questioning whether higher education is still 'worth it,' the Opportunity Colleges and Universities stand as a testament that when done right, a college education remains one of the most powerful tools for creating a more equitable society and opening doors to opportunity for all learners.