The leading Republican in the Senate who is working on a rewrite of the Higher Education Act is weighing new ways to hold colleges accountable for their students' success and is considering a federal database to keep track of student outcomes.
Senator Lamar Alexander on Monday released three policy papers outlining ideas on making colleges share in the financial risk of the federal loans they provide students,overhauling accreditation and changing how the federal government collects data from colleges.
The documents offer the most expansive look yet at Alexander's priorities for rewriting the Higher Education Act, which he has said he wants the Senate to vote on by the end of 2015. Alexander has spent much of the last year promoting his efforts to simplify the federal student aid form known as the FAFSA and to reduce regulations on colleges and universities.
The outline does not stake out many clear policy positions, and instead reviews a range of proposals that are up for debate. For instance, it says that a student-unit record database, opposed by many Congressional Republicans, is up for consideration. But it also lays out an alternative plan that would maintain the federal ban on such a system while pushing for limited graduate earnings data through a partnership between the Department of Education and Social Security Administration.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/03/24/alexander-weighing-new-accountability-tools-better-data-higher-ed-act-rewrite