Changes to Higher Ed Accountability Portend a Big Downside for Students of Color

March 16, 2018
  • Industry News
  • HEA
  • higher education act

As it works on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, Congress is considering changing the way the federal government holds colleges accountable by measuring performance program-by-program rather than institution-by-institution, as it does today. On the surface, this idea has common-sense appeal because a college could, for example, have a high-performing nursing program but also a disastrous engineering program. Rather than judging an institution by its overall performance—as is the case with current accountability metrics—program-level accountability would judge each program at a school in isolation. This means that if some programs did well and others did poorly, only the poorly performing programs would face sanctions.

Beneath the surface, however, there is a major catch to this approach. 

Read more at the Center for American Progress: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/education-postsecondary/news/2018/03/15/447959/changes-higher-ed-accountability-portend-big-downside-students-color/