One of the largest college coalitions in the nation is embarking on an ambitious effort to establish accountability within universities, following intense criticism from a federal panel of the effectiveness of America’s higher education.
The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges — which represents more than 200 public research colleges, including all UC campuses except UC Merced — is straying away from publicizing details about its plan, but is preparing to present its agenda to the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ pet-project exploring the nuances of the college system, later this week.
Panel Chairman Charles Miller has been an especially strong detractor of the way colleges measure their successes with students.
“Less than one-third of all colleges nationwide conduct comprehensive evaluations to find out whether they are achieving the purposes of their general education programs,” Charles Miller stated in a commission outline of its plans.
NASULGC is hoping to answer the panel’s call for a measuring system, and is set on exploring the feasibility of a “voluntary system” of accountability for public colleges, President Peter McPherson stated in a public letter.
There currently aren’t enough standardized measures to accurately inform students of colleges’ proficiencies, McPherson said. Many college leaders, however, expressed doubt over the federal commission’s talks of standardized tests for colleges, calling it reminiscent of the No Child Left Behind Act. A program such as NCLB that targets elementary through high schools could not encompass the nuances of universities across the nation, especially considering the presence of liberal arts, private and public colleges.
“Trying to create an uber-instrument where we simply draw the line and say, ‘This is the measurement’ will be a grave disservice,” David L. Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, told Inside Higher Ed. “We will get a meaningless outcome at a great cost.”
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