If colleges want to avoid onerous and ham-handed forms of government regulation, they should become much smarter about analyzing and responding to their own internal student-achievement data. That, in a nutshell, is the message that six representatives of major regional accrediting organizations delivered during a panel discussion Monday at the annual conference of the Association for Institutional Research.
The accreditors told the assembled scholars that they have a responsibility to persuade their deans and faculty colleagues of the importance of using internal data to improve student learning.
Several of the panelists emphasized that their accrediting organizations would continue to respect colleges' distinctive missions. But colleges must be candid with the public about how they measure their success, the accreditors warned, or risk inviting government regulation that is not so respectful of colleges' individual identities. Read the entire article in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education May 27, 2008
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