How to measure college quality

As college costs have risen, more people have questioned the educational value of colleges and whether college is worth the investment.

Consequently, legislators, parents, and students have begun taking colleges to task to prove their value for the dollar and their effectiveness.

To address growing concern from the public over high costs and from employers about the lack of career preparation taught in college, some states and colleges have started implementing “exit tests” to measure how much a student has learned before he or she graduates, according to a recent story in the Hechinger Report.

Exit tests used to measure college education quality

Examples of colleges using exit tests include Ohio state schools,which started testing candidates for education degrees before they graduate earlier this year; the Wisconsin Technical College System, which requires its graduating students to take tests or other proof of education such as research papers or portfolios; and the University of Central Missouri, which requires all undergraduates to pass its College Basic Academic Subjects Examination before they are allowed to graduate.

Educators and education experts say the process of measuring education effectiveness is long overdue, and we agree. After all, how can one adequately judge the educational quality of a college before attending if there’s no data on students when they leave?

As education journalist Jon Marcus puts it,

The trend unmasks a flabbergasting reality: that those expensive university degrees may not actually prove a graduate is sufficiently educated to compete in the workforce. And it advances the seemingly obvious proposition that they should be made to show they are before they get one.

Grades don’t measure college effectiveness

With grade inflation rampant at many colleges, even Ivy League universities such as Harvard, it’s before increasingly difficult for parents and students to determine the value of a college before committing tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to their education.

According to research published by Teachers College, Columbia University, forty-three percent of grades given out by college faculty are As. Yet a survey by the American Institutes for Research says that one-half of students about to graduate from four-year colleges and 75 percent at two-year schools fall below the “proficient” level of literacy.

These numbers prove that grades alone aren’t enough to measure how much students learn at any given university. With all the As given out, you’d think we have a nation of ultra-educated, career-ready graduates. But the public and employers say this is not the case, and several educators worry that college is being “dumbed down.”

Finding quality colleges at affordable prices

We think colleges and states taking steps to prove their value are taking a step in the right direction. College is simply too expensive and serious an investment to waste your time and money on a subpar education.

That’s why it’s important to do your homework and diligently research all of your college options before choosing where to attend. To find colleges that offer great value at an affordable price, check out our posts on the best colleges for your money and how to choose a college.