Alternative Methodologies for Assessing Social Mobility

Session Abstract: The 2025 Social and Economic Mobility (SEM) classification in the Carnegie system aims to assess how well institutions promote upward mobility for students. The SEM framework relies on national data sources that lack sufficient detail to evaluate institutional access and focuses on partial postgraduation income, which oversimplifies the diversity of institutional missions. It risks incentivizing short-term financial outcomes over broader educational goals. This session proposes alternative methodologies for gauging an institution's success in attracting and supporting diverse students by incorporating detailed student-level data, localized demographic and economic information from the Census Bureau, and broader outcome measures such as civic engagement and general health. These alternatives offer a more nuanced, equitable way to assess how well institutions contribute to social mobility.

Keywords: social and economic mobility, Carnegie Classification, census data, assessment