Guest Post: Obama's College Proposal - The Shape of Ratings to Come
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| (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/AP) |
EWA held its annual Higher Education Seminar recently at Boston's Northeastern University. We invited some of the education journalists in attendance to contribute posts from the sessions. Today's guest blogger is Mary Beth Marklein of USA Today. For more content from the seminar, including stories, podcasts, video, check out EdMedia Commons.
The subtitle for the EWA session on Obama’s higher education proposal asked, “Will Performance Ratings Hurt Student Access?”
The short answer: Who knows?
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said his department plans to begin public hearings for input on what factors the department should consider as it prepares to rate colleges on access, affordability and outcomes. So without details on what data and methodology would be used to produce the ratings, the discussion at EWA’s seminar held last month at Northeastern University focused less on whether colleges might try to game the system but on whether it’s possible to design a rating protocol that manages to avoid any number of unintended consequences and where such
The subtitle for the EWA session on Obama’s higher education proposal asked, “Will Performance Ratings Hurt Student Access?”
The short answer: Who knows?
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said his department plans to begin public hearings for input on what factors the department should consider as it prepares to rate colleges on access, affordability and outcomes. So without details on what data and methodology would be used to produce the ratings, the discussion at EWA’s seminar held last month at Northeastern University focused less on whether colleges might try to game the system but on whether it’s possible to design a rating protocol that manages to avoid any number of unintended consequences and where such