Lawmakers are weighing whether to expand federal access to student-level outcomes data as the College Transparency Act heads toward Senate consideration. The proposed change would lift the long-standing ban created in the 2008 Higher Education Act on collecting student-level data, with a new database housed in the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Backers argue the current federal data ecosystem is incomplete. College Scorecard outcomes often rely on students who received federal financial aid, while Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) graduation-rate calculations use cohorts based on first-time, full-time students, leaving major portions of today’s enrollment—especially part-time students and many community college populations—outside the picture. Higher education associations—including the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the Institute for Higher Education Policy, and New America’s higher education program—say the student-level data would improve accuracy and help students understand graduation rates and earnings more reliably. Privacy concerns remain central to opposition, with Rep. Virginia Foxx proposing the original student-data limitation in the 2008 reauthorization. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions is slated to consider the bill, reintroducing a high-stakes debate over the tradeoffs between stronger accountability signals and student privacy protections.