"When the Bush administration's Commission on the Future of Higher Education aimed to bring more accountability to colleges and universities, the only member of the panel who refused to sign the document was David Ward, who represented the nation's biggest higher-education group.
"It was a clear act of defensiveness.
"College lobbyists eventually succeeded in killing the commission's proposal to develop a national system to track the progress of each student in the country. They also resisted efforts to make the accreditation process more open and to establish a consumer-friendly database that would allow parents, students, and policy makers to compare institutions."
It's still remarkably difficult to get relevant data from colleges about how well the colleges are doing by their enrolled students. Perhaps current economic conditions will prompt more of the people paying for college educations (often parents now afraid of losing their jobs) to seek more information about whether or not colleges are a good investment.
"It was a clear act of defensiveness.
"College lobbyists eventually succeeded in killing the commission's proposal to develop a national system to track the progress of each student in the country. They also resisted efforts to make the accreditation process more open and to establish a consumer-friendly database that would allow parents, students, and policy makers to compare institutions."
It's still remarkably difficult to get relevant data from colleges about how well the colleges are doing by their enrolled students. Perhaps current economic conditions will prompt more of the people paying for college educations (often parents now afraid of losing their jobs) to seek more information about whether or not colleges are a good investment.