In the News


Defining Accountability
Published November 20, 2009
"Given the sprawling terrain covered by the American Enterprise Institute's forum here on 'Increasing Accountability in American Higher Education' Tuesday, it was probably inevitable that the conversation would touch on so many topics as to be almost incoherent," Inside Higher Ed reports. "But if a major theme emerged from the assembled speakers, most of whom fall clearly into the pro-accountability camp, it was that as policy makers turn up the pressure on colleges to perform, they should do so in ways that reinforce the behaviors they want to see -- and avoid the kinds of perverse incentives that are so evident in many policies today. This is especially true, several speakers argued, on the thorniest of higher education accountability questions -- those related to improving student outcomes. While the event looked at times like a reunion of Margaret Spellings' Commission on the Future of Higher Education, with an agenda that featured not just its former chairman but several advisers to the panel, it unfolded very much focused on President Obama's call for increasing the proportion of Americans with a postsecondary credential."

Read more about this at www.insidehighered.com.