Idaho State University receives top ranking in Idaho for graduate earnings in study by Brookings Institution

POCATELLO — Idaho State University had the highest score among all of Idaho’s two-year and four-year higher education institutions in a recent study from the Brookings Institution ranking colleges by graduate salaries.

Institutions were ranked on a score scale of one to 100 to rate the value-added to median student earnings 10 years after enrollment of the 2001-2002 cohort, with 100 being the top score.

ISU scored the Idaho-high of 63, beating out all other Idaho institutions by at least 10 points. The closest ranked four-year institution, the University of Idaho, and two-year institution, North Idaho College, both scored 53. Both public and private institutions were included in the rankings.

“This study demonstrates the high market value ISU graduates receive because of the academic programs that we offer,” said Laura Woodworth-Ney, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Idaho State University.

The ranking uses a “value-added approach” updated with College Scorecard data “aimed to present and validate new measures of the market value of the skills taught at specific colleges and improve how colleges are ranked,” according to information published with the study. The study research reportedly achieved this by “comparing diverse colleges on a more level-playing field and by calculating the economic value they add to alumni earnings and related outcomes.”

Other four-year Idaho institutions listed on the rankings were: Lewis-Clark State College, 42; Boise State University, 27; Northwest Nazarene University, 18; and The College of Idaho, 15.

The Brookings Institution is a non-profit public policy organization that conducts independent research that leads to recommendations aimed at strengthening American democracy, fostering economic and social welfare as well as security and opportunity for all Americans and securing a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative international system, according to its website. Brookings is based in Washington, D.C.

The study was authored by Jonathan Rothwell, a fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings, whose research focuses on labor market economics, social mobility, access to education and sources of economic growth.