The Other 85 Percent

The US Department of Education has released its ten-year forecast of higher education enrollments.  Coverage in this article and others perpetuate the prevalent bias that college enrollment consists mainly of 18-22 year old students who progress from high school to full-time on-campus study while remaining financially dependent on their parents.  This is predicated on the [...]

The SAT and ACT exams have long been used in admissions by land-based colleges and universities.  However, Inside Higher Ed reports that this is changing.  The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), in a major shift, is encouraging colleges to “consider dropping the SAT or ACT as admission requirements.”  The news report states that [...]

Change Magazine, in its July-August 2008 edition, covers the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA).  The VSA publishes the College Portrait, which provides consumer information on public colleges and universities.  It is a joint project of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities [...]

I have written several times about an initiative called Transparency by Design, which is intended to provide prospective adult college students with information about which programs and colleges that would be best for them. One thing that the schools participating in the Transparency by Design effort plan to report on is how well students who [...]

Two of my previous blog posts have considered Peter Ewell’s most recent book on accreditation and quality assurance.  One of the core values of accreditation described by Ewell is “professional practice.”  He states that “the academy is above all a culture that values expertise” and “the clearest manifestation is the historic preoccupation of accreditors with [...]