WASHINGTON — As the Obama Administration continues its push to make the United States the most-college educated nation in the world by 2020, institutions of higher learning should expect increased media and governmental scrutiny around issues of quality and accountability.
That was one of the take-home points from “Getting to Graduation” — a two-panel discussion forum held Tuesday in Washington that featured leaders in government, K-12 and postsecondary education, and media outlets that specialize in covering education.
The event — hosted by Washington Monthly magazine and Education Sector, a Washington-based education think tank — came on the heels of a package of stories in which the magazine and Education Sector labeled certain lackluster colleges as “dropout factories” — a term originally coined to describe high schools with markedly low graduation rates. The term, however, could gain increased usage in higher education in the future as U.S. education officials scrutinize more closely college-degree attainment rates.
The package also included the magazine’s annual college rankings guide, which routinely draws criticism from some quarters of higher education. Tuesday’s panel discussions were no different in that regard.
“They try to reduce multiple dimensions of colleges and universities into a single quantitative index,” said panelist Eduardo Ochoa, the assistant U.S. secretary for postsecondary education.
Ochoa said many choices implicit in any ranking methodology are “discretionary” and “questionable.”
“Generally speaking,” Ochoa said, “rankings have to be taken with a grain of salt.”
