Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Department of Educationa "framework" for a college ratings plan announced by President Barack Obama in 2013, but a lot of questions remain unanswered.
- The release provides an update on what metrics the department is considering and how they'll be measured, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
- Among the issues still unresolved: The form the ratings will take, and whether they'll be issued as a single composite rating for each school or a series of ratings. The approach now seems to be more on establishing minimum standards as opposed to producing something prospective students and their families can use to make value judgments.
Dive Insight:
Also unanswered: What weight each metric will be assigned, or how similar colleges and universities will be grouped together. The education department’s top higher ed official, Undersecretary Ted Mitchell says the ratings are on schedule for their first release by the start of the 2015-16 school year, with public comments accepted on the framework through mid-February. The list of metrics that might be used in the ratings include the average net price for each college, student completion rates, percentage of students receiving Pell Grants, labor market outcomes, and loan-repayment rates.
The federal college ratings system has been a topic of debate since its announcement, especially where the measurements of institutions' outcomes are concerned. A common argument has been that using such a metric would encourage colleges and universities to game the system by pushing through graduates who aren't prepared. Furthermore, including graduate incomes has had some concerned that institutions would, as a result, push students away from fields like the arts.