Which Earnings Number Is Ours? Working with Federal Earnings Data and What It May Mean for Program Review & Accreditation
Dr. Reem Jaafar and Dr. Elisabeth Lackner
November 18, 2026
3:00pm ET / 2:00pm CT / 1:00pm MT / 12:00pm PT
Description: Ask what a program's graduates earn, and federal data may give you several different answers. The College Scorecard, the Census Bureau's Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes (PSEO) Explorer, the IRS Secure Query System, and the new Student Tuition and Transparency System (STATS) each draw on different data sources, cohorts, and comparison groups. They also serve different purposes: consumer information, benchmarking, internal improvement, and, for the first time across all sectors, federal aid eligibility. Under the STATS rule finalized in July 2026, a program whose graduates fail to out-earn high school graduates in two of three years loses access to Direct Loans. At the same time, the nation's institutional accreditors have argued in a joint framework that current data systems leave out noncredit learners, students without federal aid, transfer pathways, and local cost of living. Those gaps fall hardest on open-access institutions that serve high-need students.
This session offers a practical guide through the federal earnings landscape. Participants will learn what each source measures and who it leaves out. They will also see how to bring earnings data into program review responsibly and how to prepare for accreditors' growing attention to post-completion value. Participants will leave with a crosswalk of federal sources and questions to ask of their own programs.
Speaker Bios: Reem Jaafar, Ph.D., is Dean of Institutional Effectiveness at Queensborough Community College (CUNY), where she oversees accreditation, program review, program and general education assessment, and strategic planning. She was previously a tenured Professor of Mathematics at LaGuardia Community College. Dr. Jaafar has led strategic plans and Middle States self-studies and has served as a peer evaluator for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Her work uses data and community engagement to drive institutional improvement. She has secured millions in grant funding, including from the National Science Foundation, to advance STEM student success and faculty development. She currently serves on the AALHE Board of Directors. In 2025, she was selected as one of six HERS–Luce STEM Fellows, a national program that develops women leaders in STEM higher education. She has since served as mentor-in-residence for both the HERS Leadership Institute and the AAC&U Project Kaleidoscope STEM Leadership Institute.
Elisabeth Lackner, Ph.D., is the Director of Institutional Research and Assessment at Queensborough Community College, City University of New York (CUNY), where she oversees institutional reporting, contributes to data-informed strategic planning and assessment, advances data governance and literacy, and conducts primary research on community college student success. In her leadership role, Dr. Lackner has spearheaded the development of institutional KPI dashboards, strengthened data infrastructure and governance, and supported evidence-based decision-making aligned with college strategic goals. She also plays a central role in the college's quality assurance work, including its accreditation self-studies for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. Dr. Lackner’s scholarship examines the impact of pre-college inequalities, student support systems, and structural barriers on college completion.
Non-Member Cost: $40
Member Cost: FREE
