Better Defining and Measuring Higher Ed's Value

"The mechanism approved by the federal negotiating panel will set minimum earnings thresholds for graduates of academic programs at all colleges and universities; programs that fail to hit the mark will lose federal loan access or even Pell Grant funds, depending on how widespread the failure is. Building a new government accountability scheme around postcollege economic outcomes makes sense: Ensuring that learners come out of their educational experience better off financially than they would have been otherwise is a logical minimum requirement."

"But it reflects a larger problem, which is that we don't have good ways of defining, let alone measuring, what quality or success look like in postsecondary education. And those of us who believe in higher education have erred badly by letting politicians and critics judge it exclusively by a narrow economic outcome like postgraduation salary. Most importantly, we've never come close to being able to measure learning-how much students cognitively gain from a course of study or academic experience."

A federal stakeholder group approved a mechanism that uses minimum earnings thresholds to assess academic programs and can cut federal loan or Pell Grant access. Building accountability around postcollege economic outcomes ensures learners leave financially better off than otherwise, but it signals a broader problem: quality and success in postsecondary education lack clear definitions and measurable indicators. Reliance on postgraduation earnings as the primary proxy emerged as data linking education and employment improved. Measuring cognitive learning gains remains unachieved; such a measure could reveal which institutions truly promote student growth and might challenge current prestige hierarchies.

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