Thursday, December 3, 2015

Learning, Not Wages - Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

Carol Geary Schneider has little in common with Ed Secretary Duncan, and probably couldn't agree less with Presidential aspirant Marco Rubio's views on higher education -- she refers to their critiques of higher education as a "steady drumbeat of assaults" on accreditation. But the head of the Association of American Colleges & Universities takes her own shots at accrediting agencies in a statement. In what she calls an "urgent message" to the agencies and to policy makers, Schneider decries as dangerous the policy proposals that political candidates are putting forward to "fix" accreditation. That's because they define quality and value in higher education heavily if not entirely in terms of economic "return on investment" (job placement, income levels, etc.), almost completely ignoring the "quality learning" that the 1,300 member colleges and universities of Schneider's organization strive to deliver. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/12/03/critique-urges-accreditors-promote-common-set-learning-outcomes