U.S. Education Department Set to Monitor Education Standards
Colleges seem to be getting hit from all angles lately. Financial aid and the offices disbursing it are being scrutinized, college accessibility is being questioned, and now the U.S. Department of Education is planning on getting tougher on college performance standards.
According to a March 28, 2007 article written by Doug Lederman titled, “Drawing A Hard Line,” that appeared in Inside Higher Ed, “U.S. Education Department officials suggested Tuesday that they would insist that new federal rules require accrediting agencies to set minimum standards of performance for the institutions they monitor to meet in terms of proving how well they educate students.”
Accrediting Agencies Come Up with Their Own Benchmarks
The Department of Education was in the middle of a three-day session regarding the accreditation changes. Lederman reported that during this session, “A group of accrediting agency officials and others drafted an alternative to proposed regulatory language unveiled late last week in which Education Department officials sought to give accreditors three options for measuring institutions’ success in educating students — two of which would force them to set minimal levels of acceptable performance, which regional accreditors (and many college officials) have traditionally considered it inappropriate for them to do.”
Additionally, he wrote of the accreditors draft, “Instead of requiring accreditors to alter their own standards for measuring student achievement in ways that would ‘set explicit federal standards for what counts as quality at institutions,’ as Judith S. Eaton of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation argued that the department’s approach would, the nonfederal negotiators suggested an alternative in which accreditors would collect information about completion and placement rates and other measures of student success as part of the institutional ‘self studies’ that are at the core of the accreditation system.”
Higher Learning Outcomes
So, right now just about every college has its own standards for success, some may see success in graduation rates, while others might see it in what types of jobs their alumni snag, still others may see success in fundraising and others in “Top College” rankings. Lederman quoted Vickie L. Schray, the Department of Education’s lead negotiator as stating, “‘What appears to be missing’ in the alternative proposal, Schray said, is the [accrediting] agency’s responsibility in the review and approval affirmatively of what the institutions are proposing.’ Without that, she suggested, the alternative won’t fly.”
According to the article, there has been no resolution on the issue of accreditation regulations, other than the U.S. Department of Education seems nonplused by suggestions and is taking a hard stance that accreditors follow their initial proposal. Click here to read that proposal: http://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/reg/hearulemaking/2007/accred-proposed-1.pdf.
It is important to keep up to date on the effects of the U.S. Department of Education and news on student loans and education. What goes on in government and in your state can have a great impact on your student loans and your college education.
For all the information you need about student loans, go to www.nextstudent.com.
Student Loan Girl