Ratings for Higher Ed

Maybe they could just use these

Sometimes, there is a long distance between what conceptually seems like a good idea (maybe that should be Good Idea in caps) and implementing it.  And if the concept is something proposed by a President of the U.S., all kinds of machinery are set in motion to make it happen.  So it is with President Obama's Good Idea that colleges should be rated so parents and students could know what they are getting into (or trying to get into). 

The implementer-in-chief of the Good Idea is now Ted Mitchell, undersecretary of education and one-time dean of the UCLA School of Education and Information Studies.  Maybe because of that background, a lot of the characteristics that are proposed to be rated would probably make public universities look pretty good compared to some exclusive private institutions, e.g., percent of community college transfer students.

Despite lengthy study, when what was supposed to be the release today of the details of the Good Idea actually occurred, the details were fuzzier than expected, according to a report in Inside Higher Ed to which we supply a link below:

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/12/19/education-department-releases-draft-framework-its-college-ratings-plan

Perhaps, if you just keep the ratings simple...