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Republican Higher Ed Reform?
A Bush-sanctioned commission on the status of higher education recently released a report advocating a broad shake-up in higher education. Among its myriad recommendations, the report endorsed standardized tests, federal monitoring of college quality and sweeping changes in financial aid. As Andy first reported, it kind of suggests something like 'No College Student Left Behind'.
But standardized tests? Get real. While I can appreciate the utility (and understand the caveats) in using standardized tests in the admissions process for both undergraduate and graduate programs, the diversity of student coursework at the collegiate level would make it impossible to implement any type of meaningful standardized testing system. This is not to mention the fact that there’s also the issue of how to deal with the introduction of new fields of study—something that research institutions are charged with creating and teaching. Sure, it might be easy to create a standardized test for ninth grade algebra, but how does one properly standardize coursework in newly emerging fields? Of course—maybe I am biased—since the founding of Cornell, its professors have practically invented some fields, like American literature, human development, labor relations, or hotel management. As for the proposed “federal monitoring of college quality”, I can understand the spirit of the idea—it would be nice to have a gauge of how much value-added a college or university really brings, rather than just measure the quality of its incoming students. But I’m not certain that anything the bureaucratic types in Washington, D.C. could dream up would be better than the current system of regional accreditation. When I was growing up, the Republicans were the party that wanted to eradicate the Department of Education. But times have apparently changed. Matthew Nagowski | Posted on August 14, 2006 (#) |
-- WSJ: Cornell Wins NYC Tech Campus Bid (EBilmes) -- Barrier Update: City Approves Nets (DJost) -- Big Red Cymbal Guy (Nagowski) -- New York Times Survey on Campus Recruiting is Flawed (KScott) -- Barrier Update: Legal precedent suggests City of Ithaca will not be held liable for gorge suicide (DJost) -- Despite MSG Loss, Big Potential for Big Red Hockey (EBilmes) -- City Council Will Vote on Suicide Nets (DJost) -- An Encounter on the Upper East Side (Nagowski) -- Showing Off Your School Spirit (Nagowski) -- Chipotle Ithaca? (KScott) -- Cornell at the ING NYC Marathon (KScott) -- Crossing Over a Fine Line: Commercial Activity on Campus (KScott) -- Milstein's Downfall (Nagowski) -- Can any Cornell-associated organization really be independent of the University? (Nagowski) -- Slope Media Revisited (EBilmes) -- Slope Media Group Approved for Byline Funding (KScott) -- Occupy AEM? (KScott) -- New campus pub to be good for both Greeks and non-Greeks (Nagowski) -- Gagging the Election (Nagowski) -- The Changing Structure of Rush Week (Nagowski) -- Ivy League Humility in the Midwest (EBilmes) -- Of Median Grades and Economics Minors (Nagowski) -- Homecoming Recap (Nagowski) -- My Cornell Bookshelf (Nagowski) -- The Sun's Opinion Section Has Suddenly Gotten Good (Nagowski) -- Remembering the 11th (Nagowski) -- Cornellian Tapped as Top Economic Advisor (Nagowski) -- Cutting Pledging, and the Good Which Comes With It (EBilmes) -- Why Cornell Should Not Close Fall Creek Gorge (Nagowski) -- Welcome to the Class of 2015 (Nagowski)  |