Dive Brief:
- Collaborative for Quality in Alternative Learning COO Tina Goodyear said in a recent interview with Education Dive that a hyper focus on employability and salary outcomes in higher education misses the mark on what constitutes a quality education.
- "I think it’s important to think about employability, however I don’t think that’s a fair measure across the board, given all the other considerations that go into employability, including geography," Goodyear said, adding that post-graduation success is "a combination of inputs and outcomes."
- Rather than focusing so heavily on whether program graduates land a job earning top salaries, she suggested examining the effectiveness of a program overall, particularly assessments that measure learning and competency. Some things to consider, she said: "Are the methods appropriate to the content area, are they measuring what they set out to measure? Is there academic integrity? Does it allow students an opportunity to showcase their learning in a number of ways?"
Dive Insight:
While Goodyear's comments were mostly around the appropriate judging of alternative credentialing providers, especially online, they are applicable to the broader higher education industry. The Obama administration put unprecedented emphasis on the notion that a college credential was the pathway to getting a job and moving individuals, families and the nation ahead. But that idea also brought with it increased scrutiny over graduate outcomes, and much of federal data tracking doesn't account for differences in populations, or even differences in institutional mission and resources.
And the idea of shepherding as many students as possible into and out of college may have compromised key academic functions, such as curricular review to make sure course material is relevant and students' needs are actually being met, leading to a mismatch in student preparedness vs. workforce need.
In many ways, Goodyear's suggestions that credential providers focus on the effectiveness of assessments and providing students opportunities to showcase learning in numerous ways is getting back to the basics of what constitutes an effective education. Her suggestion that the industry focus more on "learning objectives, learning outcomes, curriculum and instruction materials, assessment and student focus and, more importantly, sort of a commitment to continuous improvement" is pertinent to every administrator in higher education, and recalls a sentiment from the recent American Association of Community Colleges meeting that few institutions include a focus on learning at the core of their missions.