What There Is to Know; What we Know; and What 'They' Know About Higher Education

In "The Information Gap: Much Talk, Little Progress," Dennis P. Jones ends with a call to action: It's time to make the case for higher ed.

Despite all the hue and cry about student learning since 2000, we have actually taken a step backward in gathering comparable state-level data. Most of the movement in the last eight years has focused on individual campuses and systems, through efforts such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment and the Voluntary System of Accountability. Perhaps the biggest step backward has been in the measurement of adult skills. The number of states participating in the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) fell from 13 in 1992 to just six in 2003, and the 2003 data are still not available for all the participating states.

In just a few weeks, state legislatures will convene to face the biggest budget crisis in a generation. Unfortunately, they will have to make difficult decisions about priorities without the benefit of better information about the most urgent needs for getting more students to and through college at a price they can afford. This makes it more likely that we will see the usual responses — raising tuition, capping enrollment, cutting across-the-board — that will put states further behind in the race to grow a competitive work force.

We can fix this. It is time for every state — and the nation — to commit to getting the information needed to increase the size of our college-educated population, and to halt the worrisome slide of the United States relative to other advanced nations on higher education outcomes.