The Other 85 Percent

An Inside Higher Ed article reports on the results of the work of Carol Twigg and the National Center for Academic Transformations after ten years of working with schools to both improve learning and reduce costs. The point of the article is that Ms. Twigg had two purposes for her important and widely renowned [...]

This Inside Higher Ed article is a reminder to the higher education world that “the clock is ticking” in terms of accountability expectations. I have repeatedly written about the expectations that higher education become more accountable for its actions and its outcomes. David C. Paris correctly predicts that higher education will be challenged [...]

Recently the annual survey of online learning was released by the Sloan Consortium. The report shows continued growth in demand for online offerings despite the expectation of many, including the report’s authors, that demand would slow.
Institutions responding to the survey indicated that they believe current economic challenges will have a positive impact on overall [...]

I have posted several times about Transparency by Design, a consumer information and accountability initiative. Well, I have great news. This program was recently recognized by the Lumina Foundation for Education with a $629,000 grant.
This will allow the institutions involved in Transparency by Design the opportunity to expand our work. The initial public [...]

This study found that graduates of PhD programs are being prepared to teach only at research institutions. They do not feel prepared or confident to teach in other settings, settings where most of them actually get jobs and where most of higher education actually takes place. This unfortunately reflects the American higher education [...]

In higher education, one of the things that gets talked about but rarely defined with any clarity is “quality.’  What is quality?  How do we know that the rigor is there to drive quality? For years colleges referred to quality in terms of input.  The most award-winning faculty, the largest library, the availability of labs.  [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Response to comment by Janet Duke to the post “What is the risk in colleges and universities being more transparent / accountable”
First, thanks for posting the New York Times article.  Second, I chose to wait to reply until after the annual meeting of the Higher Learning Commission in Chicago that took place over the past [...]

Judith Eaton offers an interesting projection about what the ultimate impact will be of the current call for greater higher education accountability. While her view may be a bit extreme, it captures the dilemma of what to do when the public presses for increased information and transparency from colleges and universities. If information is provided, [...]