The Career College Association is urging that Congress pass
legislation that would require colleges and universities to produce
annual self-evaluations.
The legislation would make the CCA ““ a lobbyist group made
up of over 1,100 for-profit and vocational colleges ““ more
competitive in the marketplace of intellectual institutions.
If the legislation is accepted, schools would be required to
provide a yearly report card that would evaluate the school’s
performance in factors such as fulfillment of mission statement,
student body demographics, graduation rates and employer
satisfaction.
Since schools have different mission purposes and goals, school
report cards vary depending on the scope and mission of the school
evaluated.
Instead, schools would be required to evaluate the specific
programs they have, and the effectiveness of that program in
placing former students in their intended job fields.
The idea behind the CCA’s legislation is to create a more
consumer-driven college selection process.
“This (legislation) is going to help students select …
where best to go to succeed in the goals they had set for
themselves,” said CCA regulatory analyst Tammy Zimmer.
The CCA believes that by empowering students as consumers,
colleges and universities will feel a greater pressure to fulfill
the goals of its students.
“A student will want to go to a school that has a high
success rate related to their goals,” Zimmer said.
The CCA’s proposed report card does not allow schools to
evaluate their athletic programs or research facilities and
findings, both of which are critical components of major
institutions like UCLA.
Zimmer discounted the importance of athletics and said it was
“a very subjective issue.”
“How a school performs athletically, and how its teams are
ranked, that kind of information appeals to a very narrow segment
of student population, primarily student athletes,” Zimmer
said.
“The vast majority of students and their parents are
looking at other issues, like graduation rate and how the school
meets their mission,” she added.
While this is certainly true at for-profit schools, which
typically do not have athletic programs, it is not true at
universities such as UCLA, which has historically been an incubator
for athletic talent.
Mark Dellins, sports information director at UCLA, said the
athletic excellence of a university is an issue for students when
choosing a college.
“I think there are people who grow up being UCLA fans, for
a number of reasons, one of which is our excellence in athletics.
That factors into their college selection,” Dellins said.
Dellins said students do not evaluate colleges and universities
by the static measures the CCA’s report card suggests.
“The more well-rounded experience a university can present
to its students, whether it is success on the athletic field or
good academics, that all factors into the attractiveness of the
university,” he added.
Currently, schools are reviewed by private organizations, such
as U.S. News and World Report. But the CCA seeks to make school
information more easily accessible to students.
Zimmer said the CCA’s report card system is better than
the News and World Report because the magazine does not get its
reviews directly from the schools evaluated.
Linda Sax, a UCLA professor of education, said both ranking
schools and the CCA’s proposed self-evaluation are
problematic.
“The outcome measure (of these evaluations) aren’t
necessarily a reflection of the quality of the college,” she
said.
Sax said schools should not be evaluated by definitive measures
like graduation or employment rate, but should be judged by the
impact they have on their students.
“If you have a positive impact on your students,
that’s good education,” she said.
The CCA’s proposed report card evaluation system is being
lobbied to Congress as an extension to the Higher Education Act
““ legislation originally passed in 1965 that is reauthorized
and amended every 5 years.
Zimmer said if the House of Representatives is set to
reauthorize the Higher Education Act after it returns from summer
break, it would then go to the Senate next spring.
“If all goes well, it would go to the president for
signature next July,” Zimmer said.