The Other 85 Percent

Back in March, I posted an essay by Judith S. Eaton on the future of accreditation that resulted in a number of responses. Ms. Eaton is the head of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and her essay was discussed at CHEA’s summer workshop.
It was agreed during the CHEA discussion that “colleges have [...]

Recently, I posted a review of the major presidential candidates’ positions on education. I expressed disappointment that little attention was given to higher education and, in particular, to higher education for adults and independent part-time students. On Monday, Senator Obama made a speech on competitiveness that included references to education.

Richard Vedder, a member of the Spellings Commission, has recently written this commentary in which he calls for colleges to become more transparent. Among the things he calls for are measures of learning outcomes, student engagement, and research with alumni to assess how successful they are. He describes transparency as “vital in evaluating [...]

I recently attended a higher education conference where the head of a large state university system talked candidly about the impact of online education on public universities and public research universities, in particular. It was a frank and thoughtful assessment of the issues confronting these institutions.

This week one of the giants of higher education, and especially higher education for adults, the University of Phoenix, released its inaugural “Annual Academic Report.” The report covered student satisfaction ratings, scores on the Measurement of Academic Proficiency and Progress (MAPP), the Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (SAILS) and financial information. The university [...]

I have been following the presidential candidates and hoped that, per this article, Senator Obama had addressed higher education. However, the text of the speech reveals that this was about K-12, and references to either TRIO or GEAR UP was made in passing. Hopefully, as the campaign heats up over the next several [...]