Insights & Outlooks
Accountability: Comparing the PROSPER Act and Aim Higher Act
How would the Aim Higher Act and the PROSPER Act affect accountability? On July 24, 2018, Ranking Member Bobby Scott (D-Va.) of the U.S. House Committee on Education & the Workforce introduced the Aim Higher Act, a bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA). The Democratic proposal follows the December 2017 PROSPER Act…
Reclaiming Degrees, Restoring Opportunity: A Student-Centric Policy Idea
Good policy creates the conditions in which all people and communities can thrive. Good higher education policy creates the conditions that help all hardworking students succeed, regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status. Put simply, good higher education policy puts students first. These policies include investments in targeted need-ba...
Parent, Provider, Employee and Student: Making it All Work
Editor’s Note: This article is an expanded story based on John Englehart’s video submission to Voices of Today’s Students, a national campaign to educate policymakers about the demographic shift and experiences of the modern higher learning student, highlight their needs, and discuss policy barriers and solutions to increasing s...
Changing Higher Education Means Changing the Dialogue
Credit: NASA/GSFC Too much of the debate over higher education has devolved into whether “college is worth it.” That conversation misses a key fact: higher learning is no longer bound by quads and ivy and the traditions of the past. The landscape for learning and opportunity beyond high school is vast and growing, with millions…
The Big Fix: Rethinking Education and Workforce
By all accounts, our country needs a trillion dollars or more to rebuild crumbling highways, bridges, and other infrastructure. We also need a plan to shore up education and training after high school— but this is one area we can improve with the resources already there. Last month the Trump administration, as part of a…
Necessity to Invention: Beyond the “Toggle Switch” Approach to Accreditation
As the curtain raised, the theater went pitch black with only the light from the stage casting dimly into the audience. Patrons found themselves fumbling in the darkness trying to read their playbills and the latecomers interrupted the mood, unable to find their seats. In 1896, Granville Woods invented the “Safety Dimmer” so theater patrons—...
Strategic Coalitions Key to Improving South Carolina’s Workforce Readiness
The Boeing Company’s opens its Commercial Airplane Decorative Paint Facility in North Charleston, SC, USA. Source: Flickr. South Carolina’s current economic climate is undeniably one of growth. The South Carolina Department of Commerce is projecting solid growth for 2018 and the transportation, manufacturing, and education sectors, among othe...
Value, Accreditation, Accountability: A Dispatch from the Field
The prospect – some say threat – of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) has animated many lively discussions regarding the value of higher education, the integrity of the accreditation process, and the effectiveness of the existing accountability framework. With the possibility of a vote on reauthorization this summer, here ...