What They are Saying about the New College Rating System

"As a nation, we have to make college more accessible and affordable and ensure that all students graduate with an education of real value. Our students deserve to know, before they enroll, that the schools they've chosen will deliver this value. With the guidance of thousands of wise voices, we can develop a useful ratings system that will help more Americans realize the dream of a degree that unleashes their potential and opens doors to a better life."

--Secretary Arne Duncan

This from Morning Education (via  email):

Education Department officials plan[ed] to post by Friday [March 20] all formal comments on the draft college ratings system, but here's a peek at what some major players in education had to say.

A common theme: There's support for the Obama administration's goal of promoting affordability, accessibility and better student outcomes, but skepticism that the draft framework will accomplish that.

·         The American Council on Education, on behalf of 26 organizations: "Unfortunately, the document released on December 19th is so incomplete, tentative, and amorphous, that it is impossible to offer the type of critique that this undertaking would otherwise require ... A far better use of resources would be to abandon this plan and instead focus on other ways to achieve the central purposes of [the system] - better consumer information and stronger accountability." More: http://bit.ly/1AU0Jq8.

·         The American Federation of Teachers: "We oppose this ratings system for several reasons: a lack of good data for meaningful outcomes; a belief that the punitive nature of these ratings will harm, not help, institutions move toward our shared goals; and concerns over the proposed timeline of the ratings." 

·         The Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities: "We believe there has been universal agreement that any effort on the part of the government to treat all institutions as if they were doing the same thing and educating identical student populations is misguided and fails to recognize the diversity of American higher education. Yet the ratings system appears headed in the direction of using a few data points to sum up the quality of an institution without any descriptive information, providing an incomplete and potentially inaccurate picture."