The Europeans Could Eat Our Higher Education Lunch?
 Clifford Adelman thinks the US needs to adopt some of the European Bologna framework and principles for accountability:
Q: Are the Europeans going to eat our higher education lunch?
A: The Bologna Process is developing what will become the global paradigm for higher education in 15 years. If we remain in place without adopting some of it, yes...they will eat our lunch.
Regional SCUP Events! Enjoy the F2F company of your colleagues and peers at one of three SCUP regional conferences this spring: Labels: accountability, Adelman, Bologna, Europe
Sue This School? Should a College Pay When a Grad Can't Find a Job?
This author says, "Yes." We've all seen the headlines about the New York woman who is suing her alma mater for $70,000 because she could not find a job after graduating. Mark Gimein, writing in a Slate blog, examines the actual situation "on the ground: and suggests that . . . "the more you know about Thompson and the school she's suing, the more likely it is that you might start thinking that whatever her chances of winning in court, she's right. The story of Thompson's suit isn't a one-liner about a grad too naive to know that graduating from college doesn't guarantee a job. It's a story about what 'college' means and about marginal, for-profit "colleges" that squeeze four years of fees from their students and leave them with all the debt and little of the education or prospects that they counted on." Labels: accountability, cost, Monroe College, quality, suit
History of Accreditation and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education
Connotation, Quality, Accountability. . .
The Learning Paradigm College
Getting Past 'Accountability'
Very interesting, fun, and even useful essays about various "syndromes" and how to get past them. For example, one syndrome is the "Sisyphus Syndrome: Institutional inquiry is paralyzed by questions framed at such a general level that answering them is overwhelming and impossible. As a result, the institution pushes and pushes but never gets to meaningful analysis and reflection." To which the answer is: "Ask manageable questions that can be answered empirically." Read about them here: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2009/06/02/behrLabels: academic planning, accountability, assessment, quality, strategic planning, syndrome
Louisiana: Tougher College Admissions Standards Boost Graduation Rates
This Times-Picayune article contains a link to a chart of graduation rates of state institutions and is somewhat focused on the State University of New Orleans' plans to increase graduation rates by having tougher entry standards, following the apparently successful process already undertaken by Louisiana State University Baton Rouge over the last decade. It briefly addresses concerns that state budget cuts will affect student support services. We also provide a link to the Louisiana State Board of Regents Planning, Research and Performance website. Times-Picayune article: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/tougher_college_admissions_sta.htmlLouisiana State Board of Regents Planning, Research and Performance: http://regents.state.la.us/Planning/prphome.htmLabels: access, accountability, assessment, budget cuts, graduation rates, Louisiana, picayune, quality, student services
Which Colleges Actually Graduate Their Students (and Which Don't)?
A new report, titled "Diplomas and Dropouts," from the American Enterprise Institute begins: "In the fall of 2001, nearly 1.2 million freshmen began college at a four-year institution of higher education somewhere in the United States. Nearly all of them expected to earn a bachelor’s degree. As a rule, college students do not pack their belongings into the back of a minivan in early September wondering if they will get a diploma—only when. . . . For many students, however, that confidence was misplaced. At a time when college degrees are valuable—with employers paying a premium for college graduates—fewer than 60 percent of new students graduated from four-year colleges within six years." We have a link to a USA Today story about the report here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-06-03-diploma-graduation-rate_N.htmAs well as a link to where you can download the full 80-page document: http://www.aei.org/paper/100019Labels: accountability, AEI, assessment, graduation rates, quality, USA Today
Peace in Accreditation Land
Writing in Inside Higher Ed, Doug Lederman summarizes recent happenings in "accreditation land" this way: "In stark contrast to 2007, federal negotiations over accreditation rules end in accord, overcoming dispute over student learning outcomes that might have derailed the proceeding[s]." "Those issues were on the agenda again as another panel of negotiators completed several months of work on accreditation at an Education Department office building Tuesday, but with a dramatically different result (and dramatically less drama). The college administrators, higher education lobbyists, accreditors, state officials and others around the conference table -- including Education Department staff members -- reached "consensus" on a package of 16 regulatory proposals to carry out changes Congress made in legislation to renew the Higher Education Act last summer. (When such negotiating sessions end with "consensus" among the parties on a package of regulatory changes, a federal agency is bound to propose them as is; when no consensus is reached, the agency can essentially do whatever it wants.)" Read the full article here: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/05/20/accreditLabels: 2007, accountability, accreditation, assessment, DOug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed, policy, quality
Data Brings Sunshine: Research Publics Not Spending Money on Classroom Instruction
Even more interesting than the latest findings are some implications for the future: The greatest value of the Delta Project’s report may yet to be realized. Leaders of the project, which is funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education, plan to create a Web-based function that will allow users to look at the spending and revenue data of individual institutions. While the raw data is already public through the federal data clearinghouse for higher education, known as the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), the Delta Project hopes to create a function that adds context and meaning to the often dizzying IPEDS numbers.
Charles Miller, who chaired the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, said he welcomes the greater sunshine that the Delta Project is bringing to postsecondary education.
“Unless you have data that’s in this kind of form, it’s very hard to make decisions and policy judgments that are objective,” he said.
After reviewing the report, Miller said the Delta Project had made a data-driven case for reform, without having to use the sometimes tough language that’s found in many such reports, including the one Miller’s own commission presented.
“It doesn’t say ‘Here are the failings of the system,’ and a lot of the report is going to avoid doing that, but [Wellman] implies it,” he said. Labels: accountability, affordability, cost, Delta Project, tuition
Accreditation and the Obama Administration
What do you think is Barack Obama's perception on quality and accountability issues in higher education? Who will influence his decision making? Judith S. Eaton, president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), took part in an online discussion of these and other issues. You can read it on The Chronicle of Higher Education website: Accreditation is a process of external review developed by colleges to ensure and improve quality on an institution-wide and program-wide basis. But the self-regulation of higher education through accreditation has been challenged in recent years, in part because of criticisms led by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings. The Council for Higher Education Accreditation, a leading advocate for accreditation and self-regulation, has begun a multiyear "CHEA Initiative" that aims to respond to public and governmental concerns about the process. As part of that process, and in preparation for the council's annual meeting next month, CHEA and the nation's accrediting agencies are examining matters that include the role of the federal government in accreditation and accountability, the use of student assessments in the accreditation process, and the expectations of the new Obama administration. Questions now facing colleges and the accreditation community include: Are accreditors likely to receive a warmer reception after January 20, or will they face renewed pressure for change from the new administration and Congress? Will the economic crisis put even greater pressure on accreditors to prove that colleges provide value to their students? What are the most important accreditation-related questions facing the new education secretary? Labels: accountability, accreditation, quality
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. Labels: accountability, assessment, leadership, policy
College Portraits - New Website of the Voluntary System of Accountability
AASCU and NASULGC have been cooperating on the Voluntary System of Accountability and have now opened a new website, College Portraits. Here are a couple of statements from the accompanying press release: “The College Portrait places America’s four-year public colleges and universities at the forefront of the higher education accountability movement,” said Peter McPherson, president of NASULGC. “College PortraitTM is designed to be trustworthy source of reliable data for prospective students, families, policymakers and the general public. It becomes the only voluntary accountability program that includes student learning outcomes and easily comparable information for a majority of the nation’s public four-year colleges and universities.”
“No one should be surprised that public higher education has taken the lead on accountability,” said Constantine W. (Deno) Curris, president of AASCU. “Our institutions have a long history of commitment to public accountability and learning outcomes. College PortraitTM is being unveiled at a time when severe financial constraints for both families and state governments increase our obligation to provide dependable, accurate information in keeping with our public trust.” Labels: AASCU, accountability, assessment, NASULGC, voluntary system of accountability
Learning Accountability from Bologna: A Higher Education Policy Primer
If this is in your area of interest, it is a "must-have": The report, Learning Accountability from Bologna: a Higher Education Policy Primer, examines the reconstruction of those 46 European higher education systems—known as the “Bologna Process”—in terms of addressing challenges that lie at the core of current debates in the United States about documenting student learning. Written by higher education researcher Clifford Adelman, the study explores the core features of change in Europe that have been created jointly by higher education administrators, faculty, students, and national ministries of education. Labels: accountability, articulation, Bologna, policy
Accreditors Agonistes
A Chronicle online Colloquoy with Judith Easton: "Last month college leaders breathed a collective sigh of relief as Education Secretary Margaret Spellings said she would require "no one-size-fits-all measures, no standardized tests" from federally recognized agencies accrediting colleges. For months, colleges have been fighting language supported by the Bush administration in the reauthorized Higher Education Act that could impose assessment guidelines rather than giving colleges the ability to create their own. How will the debate shake out? Would college-created measures provide enough useful information to accreditors? Labels: accountability, accreditation, assessment
Informal OECD Ministerial Meeting on Evaluating the Outcomes of Higher Education, Tokyo, 11–12 January 2008
In discussion the attendees noted, among 12 other bullet points, "that higher education is expected to produce a range of outcomes—basic research, technology transfer, the conservation and communication of culture, education for young—and not so young—students, and engagement with wider society—efficiently, fairly and to a high standard; and that Governments and other stakeholders have therefore been turning increasingly to evaluation as a way to meet this challenge"
Labels: accountability, assessment, global
Why Doesn't the Public Understand Higher Ed Costs?
"To a certain degree, suspicion and distrust of colleges and universities are problems of the higher education sector�s own making. College and university leaders, most of whom were faculty members at some point, have the professor�s reflex against simplified explanations. Professorial skepticism toward neat, tidy, simple (but often inaccurate) answers is understandable and admirable. But politicians and reporters like to hear coherent and compelling narratives that are easy to understand and easy to retell to their constituents and readers. Higher education has often failed to grasp this. And it shows in the explanations higher education gives about the rising cost issue: They are all too often defensive or obfuscating—leaving the public scratching its head in perplexity."
Related ... A related article from Planning for Higher Education that you might want to read is titled Understanding Higher Education Costs by former SCUP president Michael F. Middaugh. Labels: accountability, cost
Action Analytics: Measuring and Improving Performance That Matters in Higher Education
"Most colleges and universities underutilize their data and analytical resources. Even though they may be awash in data, they may lack the specific information they need to identify the performance aspects that truly matter to them and their audiences - aspects that are not necessarily those captured in the key performance indicators of today's institutions. Moreover, academic culture favors analysis over action. Traditionally, institutions have placed a greater degree of importance on reputation (prestige) than on improvements in academic performance. In practice, academic freedom too often translates into autonomy rather than accountability, making concerted action more complex. Yet in spite of these limitations, many institutions have found creative ways to measure and analyze performance and value."
Related ... Note that the lead author of this EDUCAUSE Review article is SCUP's Distinguished Service Award Donald M. Norris, co-author of A Guide for New Planners. Norris and his co-author, Nick Poulton, are right now hard at work on a completely revamped replacement for that SCUP publication. Labels: accountability, action analytics, measurement
Campus Accountability Projects - Good Article
This new Inside Higher Ed article is a nicely comprehensive look, with lots of links out to documents and other articles, at two new accountability proposals: One from NAICU (National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities) and one from a collaboration between AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities) and NASULGC (National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges). Here is a PDF document containing a "mock up" of a report from "Accountability University" demonstrating the AASCU/NASULGC initiative's Voluntary System of Accountability. Here is NAICU's Consumer Information Template. We know that former SCUP visiting board member, John Hammang, a senior AASCU official, has been instrumental in developing the AASCU/NASULGC initiative. P.S. Here is a link to similar coverage by The Chronicle of Higher Education. P.P.S. If you are interested in this article, you may be interested in taking a look at SCUP's resource page regarding Academic Planning and if your interest is related to the accreditation process, you are surely interested in the SCUP book, Integrating Higher Education Planning and Assessment: A Practical Guide. Labels: AASCU, academic planning, accountability, accreditation, assessment, Department of Education, Inside Higher Ed, NAICU, NASULGC
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by John Tagg. "In The Learning Paradigm College, John Tagg champions the argument that because high school students have changed, undergraduate colleges— i.e., those colleges “both within and independent of universities, the institutions that prepare students for the baccalaureate degree”—must also transform their educational approach. He then sets out to explain how." 