March 27, 2009

Reasonable Response? Or Nefarious Plot?

To the Editor:

Kevin Carey assures us ("Blocking Public Comparisons Obstructs Knowledge, Too," The Chronicle, February 20) that because there are "many well-established ways to accurately measure" undergraduate learning, colleges and universities that balk at publishing standardized institutional measures of undergraduate outcomes must be trying to bury some shameful truths. But are such measures really that accurate? Let's examine a few.

Graduation and retention rates seem a