NEW AEI/EDUCATION SECTOR REPORT ON THE PITFALLS OF VOLUNTARY ACCOUNTABILITY IN AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION

As the call for more stringent forms of accountability and transparency in higher education have become louder, the major trade associations have responded by creating two voluntary, public databases to which schools can submit new information on college costs and quality.  The participating associations have touted these efforts as a step toward meeting the pressing need for improvements in transparency and increased accountability.  Are they?

In False Fronts? Behind Higher Education’s Voluntary Accountability Systems, an important new examination of these widely touted efforts, Andrew P. Kelly of the American Enterprise Institute and Chad Aldeman of Education Sector find that the new voluntary systems each have serious flaws that undermine their utility as engines of accountability: 

• The site for private colleges, U-CAN, provides almost no new information about costs, student experiences, or learning outcomes to parents and prospective students.
• The site for public colleges, the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), does not allow for the easy comparison of institutions, as many of the most crucial VSA data elements are incomplete or selected in a way that often obscures differences between institutions.
• Because of VSA’s voluntary nature, not all institutions participate, particularly those at the top and bottom of the quality scale.

Kelly and Aldeman conclude that “Unless these flaws are resolved, the nation runs the risk of ending up in the worst of all worlds: the appearance of higher education accountability without the reality.”  Most importantly, as the authors note, the small steps already taken “should not persuade policymakers that accountability can be increased by harnessing the good intentions of the very institutions that they seek to hold accountable.”

Andrew P. Kelly is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute whose research focuses on higher education policy, the politics of congressional policymaking, and political behavior.  He can be reached at andrew.kelly@aei.org.  Chad Aldeman is a policy analyst at Education Sector whose research focuses on higher education policy and issues of college and career readiness.  He can be reached at caldeman@educationsector.org