Accountability in Higher Education

Seed Newsvine

So now the testing craze has reached the level of higher education. My goodness, perhaps we should demand a test for those that serve the nation, make them accountable for their performance by reducing that performance to a test score at the end of each and every year they serve in office. I think it should be the same test we ask graduating high school students to take (The SAT or the ACT). If they don’t score in the top quartile then they need to be removed from office and placed in tutored classrooms until they can pass at the arbitrary level set by some external bogyman. How long do you think that would last?But, schools and their clients are powerless. Do what I say or I’ll withhold federal funds! Wow, some choice Margret Spellings offers up to colleges and universities. Comply or else. Some democracy we live in.

clipped from www.ed.gov Washington, D.C. — To help keep America competitive and provide students and families with more information and more affordable access to higher education, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced her plans to improve the U.S. higher education system, based on the recommendations in the final report of her Commission on the Future of Higher Education. Secretary Spellings made the announcement during remarks at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. In an effort to increase transparency and accountability, Secretary Spellings plans to provide matching funds to colleges, universities and states that collect and publicly report student learning outcomes. She will also convene members of the accrediting community this November to move toward measures that place more emphasis on learning and less on inputs. These proposals will improve higher education’s performance and the ability to measure that performance.