Clear the ivy on academia Colleges should welcome a federal role in judging their success.

In a yearly drama, millions of high school students received letters in recent days telling them if they can go to the college of their choice. But this spring, colleges themselves faced a kind of acceptance or rejection – by the US Department of Education.

The department began closed-door meetings earlier this year with officials of institutions of higher education to discuss possible federal rules that would open up the schools to regular public scrutiny on the quality of their teaching and learning.

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Both students and schools that rely on federal money should welcome this call for more accountability on behalf of taxpayers.

Full Story: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0409/p08s02-comv.html?s=hns

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The right way to measure college learning
National standardized testing won’t work.

By Catharine Hoffman Beyer

How do we know what college students really learn? A commission on higher education headed by US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings has raised the issue of whether national standardized tests, such as the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA), can answer that question. Our research suggests they can’t.

Full Story: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0409/p09s01-coop.html?s=hns