This morning the Obama Administration plans to release its eagerly awaited "gainful employment" standards for vocational programs at for-profit institutions and community colleges.
The overall structure of the proposed regulations looks the same as a draft version the U.S. Department of Education released in December, according to an embargoed news release the White House circulated on Thursday evening. But many details about the complex metrics were not available before the scheduled 7 a.m. release of the rule’s language.
About 8,000 academic programs would be required to comply with the standards, federal officials told reporters in a conference call Thursday. Those programs enroll one million students.
"Most will pass," said Arne Duncan, the education secretary. "Many programs, particularly those at for-profits, will not."
An estimated 16 percent of all covered programs would fail under the proposed new gainful employment metrics, officials said. An additional 8 percent would fall in a warning "zone." Among for-profits, Duncan said roughly 20 percent would fail and 10 percent would be in the zone.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/03/14/details-gainful-employment-proposal-expected-friday