Sunday, March 22, 2015

The Feds Evaluate Higher Ed

In the Crimson is an interesting piece on the proposed Administrations proposal to rank our higher education establishments.

They state:

The U.S. Department of Education is considering revising its controversial draft college rating system to create two systems instead of the one system initially proposed, according to a report by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The dual rating system would have two parts, tailored to different audiences, that would use different metrics of evaluation, according to the Chronicle. The first, using raw outcome data, would be directed towards a consumer audience, while the second, using data adjusted for individual institutions, would be aimed to help policymakers and researchers measure accountability. First proposed by President ... in 2013, the college rating system intends to evaluate institutions of higher education along a number of proposed criteria, such as graduation rates, average net price, student loan debt, and post-college earnings, according to the draft report. The drafted version would classify colleges and universities as high-, middle-, or low-performing based on these and other metrics, but would not rate institutions numerically.

Well now consider this. Some group of GED GS9s grading Harvard, Princeton, MIT.  The chicken comes home to roost! What a nightmare this will be. Our last vestige of competence, now being invaded by politicians. The final step in destroying any future competence in this country.

Higher education is already rated by the market place. By other nations. Perhaps we need to take the advice of our Government employees to make things more like Washington. Shudder the thought! We get a mass crowd of uneducated GS9s wandering around with massive forms and reviews and reports. It will make the Health Care EHR Meaningful Use fiasco along with ICD 10 look like Kindergarten.

This is truly a monumental mess!